Prop 8 Judge Gay - So What?

The San Francisco Chronicle reported last weekend on the somewhat open secret that Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, who is presiding over the Prop. 8 trial in California, is gay. Predictably, the anti-marriage equality crowd is freaking out, with the National Organization of Marriage questioning his impartiality. Ironically, however, the judge's first appointment to the federal bench in 1987, by Ronald Reagan, nearly failed due to the perception from House liberals that he would not be sensitive to the concerns of gays and lesbians.

Would an African-American judge be expected to recuse him- or herself from a civil rights case involving and African-American plaintiff? Should Antonin Scalia, a devout Catholic, decline to hear cases involving questions of religious freedom for Catholics? This is clearly a political tactic designed to invalidate a potential ruling in favor of the plaintiffs.