Citizen letter to court: Walker should have recused himself
In one of the more unusual documents filed with the 9th Circuit in regards to the Proposition 8 appeal, a “citizen of the State of California” asks to file a brief in the case to discuss Judge Vaughn Walker’s bias, given the “allegation that Judge Walker is a homosexual. . . .”
The citizen, Robert Wooten, says in his letter to the federal appeals court that “if the allegation that Judge Walker is a homosexual is true [then] he has a personal interest in the outcome of the trial” that he presided over concerning the constitutionality of California’s same-sex marriage ban. Wooten says Walker should have recused himself.
Wooten’s two-page letter, filed September 15, offers no argument concerning recusal and, instead, refers to the Bible and contends that the U.S. Constitution “does not concern itself with civil rights. . . .”
While some media outlets have reported that Walker is gay, none have produced any substantiation beyond repetition of a common rumor. Walker has never made any public statement concerning his sexual orientation.
As fantastic a job as Olson & Boies did during the first trial, I’ve always thought they should have entered into the record every pro-Prop 8 letter to the editor they could find — every one of which only proves that the pro-8 vote was rooted solely in “faith-based” anti-gay animus. This letter sounds like more of the same — which is good for us!
And so, by this logic, black judges must recuse themselves from cases involving racism. Female judges must do the same for gender discrimination. Jewish judges should stay out of religious cases. And of course male judges should recuse themselves from sexual harassment cases. Lesbian judges as well, unless they’re really hot. Vegetarian judges should recuse themselves from cases against meat companies. Liberal judges should stay away from cases where the plaintiffs are conservative, and vice-versa. Judges named Robert should recuse themselves from cases involving guys named Robert, or “Bob”. Judges of Irish descent should recuse themselves from cases in which any of the participants are Irish. Furthermore, we should go back and re-adjudicate cases where any of the above conditions were true, or suspected of being true.
It doesn’t matter if Judge Walker was wearing a pink silk dress under his black robes during the trial, a judge is a person, too. By the logic of Mr. Wooten, a female judge couldn’t hear a case involving sexual harassment or discrimination, a judge with children couldn’t hear a case involving child abuse, a married judge couldn’t hear a divorce proceeding. What baloney! The homohaters are just pissed off and grabbing at any straws within reach.