http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/06/13/Desperate_Measures_for_Prop_8_Supporters/A federal judge in San Francisco will hear arguments today as to whether the landmark Proposition 8 decision by U.S. chief district judge Vaughn R. Walker should be thrown out because the now-retired jurist did not disclose his same-sex relationship.
Chief Judge James Ware, who is handling remaining trial-level issues concerning the Prop. 8 case following Walker’s retirement earlier this year, will hear arguments at 9 a.m. Pacific Time at the Phillip Burton Federal Building & United States Courthouse in San Francisco.
Supporters of Proposition 8 have argued that Walker’s unequivocal August ruling striking down the ballot measure as unconstitutional should be vacated because he did not disclose his long-term relationship when randomly assigned the case.
Upon Walker’s disclosure of his relationship in an interview with Reuters, proponents of the ballot measure that stripped California’s gays and lesbians of the right to marry have argued that there is “a reasonable basis for concern that Judge Walker has a direct and substantial personal interest in the outcome of the case and that his impartiality could reasonably be questioned.”
But the legal team led by attorneys Ted Olson and David Boies, who successfully argued against Prop. 8, has called the move “an utterly baseless attack on the integrity of the judicial system, on then-Chief Judge Walker, and on all gay and lesbian jurists who faithfully perform their duties and decide cases across this country each day.”
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