I’m speaking of Judge Vaughn Walker, who ruled that California’s Proposition 8 was unconstitutional earlier today.
Judge Walker is naturally being assailed by all kinds of right wing loons spouting the usual charges of “judicial activism” and many are pointing out that the “liberal” is based in San Francisco. Bias!!
Um, No. David Boaz at CATO calls bullshit:
Judge Walker was first appointed to the federal bench by President Ronald Reagan in 1987, at the recommendation of Attorney General Edwin Meese III… Democratic opposition led by Sen. Alan Cranston (D-CA) prevented the nomination from coming to a vote during Reagan’s term. Walker was renominated by President George H. W. Bush in February 1989. Again the Democratic Senate refused to act on the nomination. Finally Bush renominated Walker in August, and the Senate confirmed him in December.
Turns out Walker wasn’t politically correct, being a) a member of an all-male club and b) having “represented the U.S. Olympic Committee in a suit that prevented a Bay Area group from calling its athletic competition the Gay Olympics.” Dems including Joe Biden and Ted Kennedy were among those holding it up.
That’s your “liberal SF judge” – handpicked by Ed Meese (now part of the Heritage Foundation, which is among this decision’s harsh critics) and nominated by Saint Ronald, and opposed by the Senate’s then-most prominent liberals.
But wait! There’s more:
Josh Green of the Atlantic notes a pattern: the federal judge in Boston who struck down a significant portion of the Defense of Marriage Act, ruling that it denied gay and lesbian couples the federal benefits afforded to straight couples, was appointed to the bench by President Richard Nixon. And the chief judge of the Iowa Supreme Court who wrote the unanimous decision striking down that state’s marriage ban was appointed by Republican governor Terry Branstad, who was just renominated for governor by Iowa Republican voters. Of course, Nixon and Branstad don’t have the conservative cred of Reagan and Meese.
I’m reminded of the fact that Earl Warren was appointed Chief Justice by a Republican president, too.
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