Supporters of California's gay marriage
ban, Proposition 8, argue that federal District Court Judge Vaughn
Walker should have recused himself because he's gay and in a
long-term relationship, the AP reported.
Protect Marriage, the coalition of
mostly Christian conservative groups defending the law, have appealed
U.S. District Judge James Ware's June ruling against their request to
invalidate Walker's August 2010 ruling overturning the 2008
voter-approved law because Walker has since acknowledged that he's
gay and in a ten-year relationship with a physician.
The 67-year-old Walker acknowledged his
sexual orientation after he ruled on the case and subsequently
retired from the bench.
In their filing to the Ninth Circuit
Court of Appeals, Protect Marriage insisted the judge should have
disclosed any interest he may have had in marrying his partner or
disqualified himself.
“Although a judge may choose to avoid
disclosure by recusing himself without explanation, he cannot both
remain silent and sit in judgment of a case in which a reasonable
observer, with knowledge of all of the relevant facts (disclosed or
not) would conclude the judge's impartiality might reasonably be
questioned,” lawyers for Protect Marriage said in written
arguments.
Lawyers arguing against the gay
marriage ban, countered that judges should step aside from hearing a
case only when they have a “substantial and individualized interest
in the case, particularly a financial interest, that gives rise to
actual bias.”