Since the National Organization for Marriage can’t get judges removed from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (or at least not quickly), it’s calling on Justice Stephen Reinhardt to recuse himself from the Perry v. Schwarzenegger appeal because his wife Ramona Ripston is supposedly too close to the case: she advised the plaintiffs before they filed suit. So NOM, together with the defendants at Protect Marriage, want him gone before Monday’s oral arguments begin. Update: Reinhardt will not recuse himself.
pfitzner
By that measure, Clarence Thomas should recuse himself from all gay-related issues due to his loony wife’s conservative activities.
B
The real reason is that Stephen Reinhardt is supposedly the most liberal member of the court. If you boot him, a random selection will almost certainly produce someone more to NOM’s liking. They are just coming up with bogus arguments in the hope of stacking the deck in their favor.
Check out http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/001/414ilyss.asp for what conservative publications were saying about him (in 1997, so it is not biased by views on Prop 8).
Rick H
Are you fucking kidding me? The junior judge on the panel is from Utah, attend Brigham Young Law School and is a mormon. (Ya know… The people that funded prop 8)
steveMD2
things are actually changing in Utah and the mormon church. 30 cities / counties have no discrimination laws re housing and jobs, mostly thanks to the church and Utah equality groups talking.
Marriage – dont hold your breath.
Maybe the mormons rememberwhen they were chased into the hinterlands, and murdered for whom they were.
And a alittle embarrassment over prop 8 helps also.
steveMD2
have NON discrimination laws.
My mistake reminds me – about ten yrs ago churches were buying up bible publishing houses.
To make tiny changes that totally change the meaning of a whole sentence or paragraph.
You can guess who was the target of that kind of dog droping