Judge's gay partner raised in Proposition 8 case

Proponents of California same-sex marriage ban filed a movement Monday seeking to check out of the historic ruling that upturned Proposition 8 since the federal judge who wrote it is in a long-term association with an additional man.

Lawyers for the ban's backers said that Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker should have uninvolved himself from the case, or at least disclose his relationship status, to avoid a real or supposed conflict of interest.

"Only if Chief Judge Walker had unambiguously disavowed any attention in marrying his partner could the parties and the public be certain that he did not have a direct personal concentration in the outcome of the case," attorneys for the coalition of sacred and conservative groups that put proposal 8 on the November 2008 ballot wrote.