Exposed: The Bamboozling Judge Walker

At Bench Memos, Ed Whelan has written a series of three blogposts on Judge Walker's continued odd behavior in pursuit of broadcasting his bench trial of the CA marriage amendment.

Here are a few snippets to give you a taste, but I recommend reading the series in full to prepare yourself for tomorrow's decision by the US Supreme Court on whether or not to make permanent its blocking of Walker's moves to broadcast the bench trial.

"Judge Walker’s Gambit to Bamboozle the Supreme Court."

Part 1

In the immediate aftermath of the Supreme Court’s interim order yesterday barring Internet broadcasting of the trial, Walker, who evidently remains as fervent as ever in his desire to televise the trial, tried to put lipstick on his pig by purporting “to clarify” a point.

[...]

If Walker thinks that his meaningless cosmetic revision will trick the Supreme Court justices, he’s taking them for fools.

Part 2

Walker’s eagerness to play circus master is also reflected in his announcement yesterday, predictably eliciting guffaws in the courtroom audience, that he had received 138,542 responses in favor of his purported revision to Local Rule 77-3 and 32 responses opposed. Walker didn’t see fit to note that 138,248 of the supportive responses were signatures solicited by an activist group called the Courage Campaign that launched a petition drive urging its supporters to sign their names to a letter to Walker that “insist[s] that the trial of Proposition 8 be televised.” (As I’ve noted, it was that same Courage Campaign that produced a notorious anti-Prop 8 ad that appealed to anti-religious bigotry.)

Part 3

The joint gamesmanship of Judge Walker and Ninth Circuit chief judge Alex Kozinski in support of their goal of televising the anti-Proposition 8 show trial has been so transparent that even a news article in San Francisco’s legal newspaper refers matter-of-factly to their having “willfully orchestrated a break from official federal judiciary policy.” It appears that it was Kozinski (who can be an excellent judge on those occasions when he doesn’t succumb to his own willfulness or to his own admiration of his cleverness) who pushed Walker to make the meaningless cosmetic rebranding of his YouTube order.

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Also see:

Courting Intimidation.

Watching Walker.

Judge Walker Making a Farce of Judicial Role in CA Marriage Case.

Judge Walker Takes Highly Dubious Steps in California.