'I DON'T KNOW': One of the more dramatic moments in the run-up to the Prop 8 trial came when Chief Judge Vaughn Walker pressed Prop 8 proponent Charles Cooper about the state's interest in procreation during a summary judgment hearing. How, Walker asked, would permitting same-sex marriage impair that interest?
'Your honor, my answer is: I don't know. I don't know," Cooper said.
At least in Walker's eyes, Cooper and his team never did figure it out. Walker saw fit to quote that exchange on page 9 of today's ruling before thrashing the procreation-as-justification argument.THAT DIDN'T TAKE LONG: Less than an hour after the ruling, there's been a call for Walker's impeachment. It comes from the American Family Association's Tim Wildmon, who plays his card thusly:
“It’s also extremely problematic that Judge Walker is a practicing homosexual himself.... His situation is no different than a judge who owns a porn studio being asked to rule on an anti-pornography statute. He’d have to recuse himself on conflict of interest grounds."
Actually, Walker's situation strikes us as "no different" than a female judge assigned to preside over a case involving sex discrimination, or a black judge who draws a voting rights case.
EXPERT EVISCERATION: Daniel Blankenhorn was one of just two experts put up by Prop 8 proponents. He didn't fare so well -- Walker even gave him a warning in open court: "I'm sure you would not want your demeanor on the stand to be a negative factor in your testimony." On Wednesday, Walker concluded Blankenhorn "lacks the qualifications to offer opinion testimony and, in any event, failed to provide cogent testimony." His opinions, Walker wrote, are "unreliable and entitled to essentially no weight."
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