Law Professor Gerard Bradley: "Why Has Media Ignored Judge's Possible Bias In California's Gay Marriage Case?"

Notre Dame Law Professor Bradley writes in part that "I do not doubt that Judge Walker made up his mind about Prop 8 before the trial began. But that is not the bias that has received too little attention. Battalions of commentators have wondered about his bizarre handling of the case, and many have attributed it to Walker’s belief that it is unjust for the law to limit marriage to opposite-sex couples. Nor is the neglected bias related to the fact that (as several newspapers have reported) the judge is openly gay... The neglected bias in the Prop. 8 trial has instead to do with the fact that – as reported in The Los Angeles Times last month – Judge Walker 'attends bar functions with a companion, a physician.' If (as The Times suggests) Judge Walker is in a stable same-sex relationship, then he might wish or even expect to wed should same-sex marriage become legally available in California. This raises an important and serious question about his fitness to preside over the case. Yet it is a question that received almost no attention." Tweet