1. Home
2. Daily News
3. Judge in Prop 8 Trial Leaves Bench During…

Judge in Prop 8 Trial Leaves Bench During Orrick Partner’s Argument

By Debra Cassens Weiss

March 17, 2010, 2:53 pm CDT

Updated: A federal judge hearing a challenge to California’s gay-marriage ban listened to more than 90 minutes of arguments in a dispute over documents on Tuesday, but abruptly left the bench during a presentation by a lawyer from Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe.

Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker “strode off the bench” as lawyer Stephen Bomse was beginning a new sentence in his argument on behalf of civil rights groups that were fighting production of documents, the Legal Pad blog reports. Bomse remained at the lectern for a second before turning to collect his things, the blog says.

The dispute concerned documents circulated among civil rights groups that referred to arguments for and against the Proposition 8 ballot measure to ban gay marriage, the Associated Press reports.The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups argued the disputed e-mails and memos were irrelevant to the case, and sifting through thousands of documents to find them would be burdensome.

A federal appeals court had ruled that messages between top campaign officials about strategy could be withheld, but information distributed more broadly would have to be produced.

The dispute could delay a verdict in the trial. No reason was given for Walker’s decision to leave the bench, but that didn’t stop bloggers from speculating.

According to coverage by Firedoglake’s The Seminal blog: “Judge Walker did not appear to be pleased to be reminded of the several times the 9th Circuit has overruled his orders in this case.” The blog noted that Walker said thank you before leaving the bench, and soon afterward his clerk announced a recess.

Legal Pad ventured that Walker could have been irritated by the decision to press the issue, an appeal of a magistrate’s ruling, or the delay it would cause in the trial. Or perhaps he liked the idea of “kicking around” those who oppose disclosure in hopes of bolstering his credibility in the event the case makes it to the U.S. Supreme Court, the blog said.

A phone call placed to Walker’s chambers for comment yielded a phone message from his clerk who said he would be unavailable from March 17 to 19.

Joan Anyon, media liaison for the District Court for the Northern District of California, told the ABA Journal that an unofficial transcript of the proceeding showed Bomse had already effectively made his point when Walker ended the proceeding in what appeared to be a “professional exchange.”

The suit seeking to overturn the ban was brought by former solicitor general Ted Olson, who represented George W. Bush in the controversial Bush v. Gore lawsuit, and his legal opponent in the election case, David Boies.

Updated on March 18 to include speculation about the reason Walker left the bench.

Updated on March 19 to include comment by Joan Anyon.