Focus On The Family On King & Spalding

With side attacks on the president and Vaughn Walker.

AFA's Poll Of The Day

Prop 8 Proponents Move To Vacate Judge Vaughn Walker's Ruling Because He's Gay

They've been talking about it for weeks and today Prop 8's backers officially filed to vacate Judge Vaughn Walker's ruling overturning the ban of same-sex marriage in California. Because a gay judge cannot possibly be impartial about gay issues.

The sponsors of California's same-sex marriage ban said Monday that the recent disclosure by the federal judge who struck down Proposition 8 that he is in a long-term relationship with another man has given them new grounds to have his historic ruling overturned. Lawyers for the ban's backers filed a motion in San Francisco's U.S. District Court, arguing that Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker should have removed himself from the case or at least disclosed his relationship status because his "impartiality might reasonably be questioned." "Only if Chief Judge Walker had unequivocally disavowed any interest in marrying his partner could the parties and the public be confident that he did not have a direct personal interest in the outcome of the case," attorneys for the coalition of religious and conservative groups that put Proposition 8 on the November 2008 ballot wrote.

Lambda Legal's Jon Davidson reacts:

To say that Judge Walker's should have disclosed his ten-year relationship with another man or that it made him unfit to rule on Proposition 8 is like saying that a married heterosexual judge deciding an issue in a divorce proceeding has to disclose if he or she is having marital problems and might someday be affected by legal rulings in the case. Or that any judge who professes any religious faith is unable to rule on any question of religious liberty or, at a minimum, must disclose what his faith teaches. Much like a suggestion that a female judge could not preside over a case involving sexual harassment or an African American judge could not preside over a case involving race discrimination, Proposition 8's supporters improperly are suggesting that a judge will rule in favor of any litigant with whom he shares a personal characteristic.

American Foundation for Equal Rights reacts:

"This motion is yet another in a string of desperate and absurd motions by Prop 8 Proponents who refuse to accept the fact that the freedom to marry is a constitutional right. They're attempting to keep secret the video of the public trial and they're attacking the judge because they disagree with his decision. Clearly, the Proponents are grasping at straws because they have

NCLR's Shannon Minter reacts:

"This is a desperate and ill-advised move that underscores their inability to defend Prop 8 on the merits. This is not likely to win them any points with the courts, who understandably do not appreciate having the integrity of judges called into question based on such outrageous grounds. This is part and parcel of the underhanded way the Prop 8 campaign itself was run-based on lies, insinuations, and unsupported innuendo."

HomoQuotable - Greg Quinlan

"When two plus two doesn't equal four anymore, you can do anything you want because logic and truth [don't] matter. We are no longer a nation of laws; we are a nation of lawmakers. And those lawmakers happen to wear black robes and sit in courtrooms. I have to speak to this as a former homosexual. This is part of the pathology, the arrogance of the narcissism of homosexuality, because Judge Walker is himself a homosexual and proud to say so. So this is the issue that we have here. We have the elitist arrogance of the homosexual political movement who are making rules as they go along. This is illicit and illegal what he did." - "Ex-gay" whackjob Greg Quinlan, who is ever so pissed that Walker recently played a Prop 8 trial clip during a speech to college students.

RELATED: In 2008 this "former homosexual" was divorced by his wife, presumably on the grounds of extreme douchebaggery. And gayness. Definitely gayness.

Release The Prop 8 Tapes!

The American Foundation for Equal Rights requests your signature on an open letter demanding the release of the Prop 8 trail videotapes, something NOM has been fighting for years. What are they so afraid of? I think you know.

Matt Baume: This Week In Prop 8

Baume recaps the attempt to keep the Prop 8 trial footage out of the public eye and last week's civil unions vote in Delaware.

SF Chronicle Editorial: Judge Walker Is Gay, Prop 8 Overturn Must Be Vacated

The San Francisco Chronicle has posted an editorial in which failed 2010 California attorney general candidate John Eastman calls for vacating Judge Vaughn Walker's ruling to overturn Prop 8. Because Walker's recent official coming out as a gay man in a long-term relationship shows that he personally benefited from his own ruling.

Walker's admission requires that his decision in the case be vacated. He is either a direct beneficiary of his ruling in the case, or a person with a close-enough personal interest in the case that his impartiality might reasonably have been questioned if the required disclosures had been made. In Liljeberg vs. Health Services Acquisition Corp., the U.S. Supreme Court held that vacatur is required even when the disqualifying relationship only became known to the parties 10 months after the judgment entered in the case had been upheld on appeal. Where an objective observer would have questioned the judge's impartiality, recusal is required, and the appropriate remedy is to vacate the judgment because of the risk of injustice to the parties and of undermining the public's confidence in the judicial process.

Nowhere in Eastman's piece does he mention that NOM supported his campaign for attorney general. The Chronicle fails to note that pesky detail as well.

Matt Baume: Politicians & Gay Bashers

This week's episode includes an update on the DOMA/deportation situation from attorney Lavi Soloway.