Prop. 8 Judge Stacking Deck Against Marriage

Conn Carroll / January 11, 2010

Today in San Francisco, U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker will begin presiding over Perry vs. Schwarzenegger, a case that could erase the will of California’s voters by finding Proposition 8’s refusal to recognize same-sex marriage as unconstitutional. But as Heritage Foundation Chairman of the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies and Ronald Reagan Attorney General Ed Meese explains in today’s New York Times, some of Judge Walker’s pre-trial rulings have already made history:

But most disquieting for supporters of traditional marriage is a series of pretrial rulings issued by Judge Vaughn R. Walker that have the effect of putting the sponsors of Proposition 8, and the people who voted for it, on trial.

Judge Walker’s decisions have been surprising because they differ from those of other judges who have previously scrutinized marriage laws — in Iowa, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey and elsewhere in California, for example. In those instances, the courts have decided legal challenges to state marriage laws based on legislative history, scholarly articles and testimony by social scientists and other experts. They have, in some cases, looked for evidence of legislative intent in the statements published in official voter information pamphlets. (more…)