Friday, February 22, 2013

This could only be a job for Judicial Activism

McClatchy interviewed now retired Federal Judge Vaughan Walker as the United States Supreme Court gets ready to visit Perry v. Schwarzenegger and his ruling that California's ban on same sex marriage was unconstitutional.

This has been noted before if the Supreme's actually follow the record, they will have a tough time overturning Walker's finding:

...to Walker's surprise, after lawyers for same-sex couples put on a parade of witnesses, gay marriage foes put on scant evidence, offering just two witnesses, including one who later came out in favor of same-sex marriage rights. "I did think the proponents of Proposition 8 would put on a case," Walker said.

"It never occurred to me that they would ... ," and his trademark baritone trails off. Walker asks for the correct baseball term for taking a swing and a miss at a pitch and then just shrugs.
 Years of legal precedent dictate that "the record" is the primary factor in determining whether a decision below is affirmed or reversed.

To reverse on this record would really require a Justice to go out of their way to actively flout how court's are supposed to work, a real bit of judicial activism.

And we've got just the justices to go out of their way.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/02/21/183782/judge-who-struck-down-californias.html#storylink=cpy

2 comments:

StonyPillow said...

Roberts Court judges make it their business to stand athwart loving couples yelling, “Stop!”

You think they’d have something better to do, like go home and rethink their lives.

pansypoo said...

but don't call THEM activist.