Judge’s Partner Cited As Grounds For Prop. 8 Appeal

[Kadie]

Judge’s Partner Cited As Grounds For Prop. 8 Appeal
April 25, 2011 4:56 PM

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS/AP) – The sponsors of California’s same-sex marriage ban have said 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 appeal.

Lawyer Andy Pugno told The Associated Press on Monday that backers of the voter-approved measure believe that Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker should have removed himself from the case because his impartiality could “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.

They are now asking the judge who inherited the case when Walker retired at the end of February to vacate Walker’s August 2010 decision. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals already is reviewing the legal merits of Walker’s ruling at the request of Proposition 8′s proponents.


more...
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2011/04/25/judges-partner-cited-as-grounds-for-prop-8-appeal/

[mike_c]

1. only if the Prop 8 proponents have "unequivocally disavowed any interest in marrying..."

...anyone else does this argument even begin to make any sort of twisted sense. If being homosexual and wanting to marry is a conflict of interest in a definition of marriage case, then being heterosexual and wanting to marry creates the same conflict.

[xchrom]

2. Straight husbands, straight wives? Anyone? Nt