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Who Has the Right to Judge?

Written by Leonard Pitts Wednesday, 11 August 2010 14:39

He had no right to judge.

That, in a nutshell, is the gist of last week's uproar over a ruling by Vaughn Walker. Walker is the federal judge, originally appointed by Ronald Reagan and generally regarded, according to the Associated Press, as ``a conservative with libertarian leanings,'' who struck down Proposition 8, California's ban on same sex marriage.

It turns out there is a rumor -- never confirmed or denied -- that Walker himself is gay. That has launched proponents of the ban into a full-fledged tizzy.

Maggie Gallagher, chairwoman of the National Organization for Marriage, blasted him as ``an openly gay federal judge . . . substituting his views for those of the American people and our Founding Fathers . . .''

Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association called for Walker's impeachment and said the jurist should have recused himself because ``his own personal sexual proclivities utterly compromised his ability to make an impartial ruling.''

Matt Barber of something called the Liberty Counsel accused Walker of ``extreme bias in favor of his similarly situated homosexual activist plaintiffs.''

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