More Prop 8 Debate

A federal judge has upheld Judge Vaughan Walker's ruling striking down Prop 8, declaring that the fact that Walker is gay had no bearing on the legal decision to nullify California voters' proposition to overturn gay marriage.

The decision by Chief Judge James Ware of the U.S. District Court in San Francisco left the ruling by retired Judge Vaughn R. Walker in place. Walker’s decision remains on hold pending a separate appeal to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.



Proponents of Proposition 8 argued that Walker's conflict was not his sexual orientation, but the fact that he was in a serious same-sex relationship that could conceivably lead to marriage.

Walker, a Republican appointee, has never said publicly whether he wished to marry his partner. But he told reporters that he never considered his sexual orientation grounds for declining to preside over the Proposition 8 challenge.

"It is not reasonable to presume that a judge is incapable of making an impartial decision about the constitutionality of a law, solely because, as a citizen, the judge could be affected by the proceedings," Ware wrote in his ruling.

The Prop 8 supporters made the legal argument that because Judge Walker was gay, he had a conflict of interest and that he was incapable of ruling on the merits of the law.  Judge Ware basically laughed that argument out of court and deservedly so.

So the ruling will still go to California's Supreme Court, and then ultimately the US Supreme Court, which is where I've said all along that this will end up, and probably just in time for the 2012 Presidential contest.