Gay judge’s ruling against ban on same-sex marriage upheld

A FEDERAL judge yesterday upheld a gay judge’s ruling striking down California’s ban on same-sex marriage, noting that his fellow justice could not be presumed to have a personal stake in the case just because he was in a long-term same-sex relationship.

Chief US District Judge James Ware said former chief judge Vaughn Walker had no obligation to divulge whether he wanted to marry his own gay partner before he declared last year that the voter-approved Proposition 8 was unconstitutional.

Ware said it was the first case in which a judge’s same-sex relationship had led to calls for disqualification. He said there were probably similar struggles when race and gender were the issues at stake.