U S District Chief Judge Vaughn Walker

Excerpts from the federal court ruling striking down Proposition 8, the voter-approved initiative that banned gay marriage in California. Judge Vaughn R. Walker's conclusion: "Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license. Indeed, the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite sex couples are superior to same-sex couples.

The people of California spoke clearly at the polls in 2008 when they passed an amendment to the state Constitution that defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman. The public debate was held, the media wars were fought, both sides spent millions of dollars and the people voted for Proposition 8 by a margin of 52% to 48%. The people's will carried the day, as it is supposed to — until U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker came along. Last week, Walker nullified the votes of 7,001,084 people.

The people of California spoke clearly at the polls in 2008 when they passed an amendment to the state Constitution that defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman. The public debate was held, the media wars were fought, both sides spent millions of dollars and the people voted for Proposition 8 by a margin of 52% to 48%. The people's will carried the day, as it is supposed to — until U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker came along. Last week, Walker nullified the votes of 7,001,084 people.

Excerpts from the federal court ruling striking down Proposition 8, the voter-approved initiative that banned gay marriage in California. Judge Vaughn R. Walker's conclusion: "Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license. Indeed, the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite sex couples are superior to same-sex couples.

A federal judge says the sponsors of California's same-sex marriage ban, Proposition 8, must hand over some internal campaign records to lawyers seeking to overturn the voter-enacted initiative. U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn Walker denied a request Thursday by the Protect Marriage campaign to shield all e-mails, memos and reports dealing with its strategy, voter messages and rationale for preventing gay couples from marrying. The group had argued that releasing the information violated its supporters' free speech rights and potentially subjected them to harassment from gay marriage advocates.

A federal judge will examine classified documents to determine whether a national security privilege applies in a case about claims that AT&T Inc. assisted with a domestic spying program. U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco, in an order this week, said he would review the documents as part of a request by the Justice Department to halt the trial until the state secrets issue was addressed.

Political campaigns: An article in Sunday's California section about campaign trackers' growing use of technology to monitor rival candidates' public appearances said then-U.S. Sen. George Allen was caught making a racial slur by such an operative in 1996. The episode occurred in 2006. Ruben Salazar records: In Tuesday's LATExtra section, an article about L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca's refusal to release records sought by The Times relating to the 1970 death of journalist Ruben Salazar was accompanied by an uncredited photo of a deputy outside the Silver Dollar bar where Salazar was killed.

A federal judge in San Francisco will decide Wednesday whether gays and lesbianshave a constitutional right to marry. U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker, who presided over a trial earlier this year on the constitutionality of Proposition 8, will release his long-awaited ruling Wednesday on whether the 2008 ballot initiative violates the U.S. Constitution, a court spokeswoman said. Walker, an appointee of President George Bush, heard myriad witnesses testify about the history of marriage, the nature of homosexuality and the degree of power gays and lesbians possess in the political system during the 2 1/2-week trial in January.

A federal judge in San Francisco decided today that gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry, striking down Proposition 8, the voter approved ballot measure that banned same-sex unions. U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker said Proposition 8, passed by voters in November 2008, violated the federal constitutional rights of gays and lesbians to marry the partners of their choice.. His ruling is expected to be appealed to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and then up to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In another swing at the judge who declared Proposition 8 to be unconstitutional, backers of the measure Monday asked that his decision be voided because he failed to disclose that he was gay and in a long-term relationship with another man. In a court filing, the sponsors of the ban on gay marriage, ProtectMarriage, asked the chief judge of the federal court in San Francisco to nullify last August's ruling by former U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn...

The U.S. Supreme Court cast its first vote last week on the legal challenge to California's voter initiative barring same-sex marriage, and some experts said it was a bad omen for those who hope gays and lesbians will win a constitutional right to such unions. The 5-4 decision, with conservatives in the majority, intervened in the San Francisco district court trial on behalf of the defenders of Proposition 8. The high court rebuked U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn Walker for seeking to give the public a chance to view the proceedings on the Internet.

Having ruled that Proposition 8 unreasonably and unconstitutionally deprived gay and lesbian couples of the right to marry, U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker should take the natural next step of allowing such marriages to go forward while the case wends its way upward on appeal. True, this would create another period of uncertainty over the fate of those marriages, the same uncertainty that confronted same-sex couples in 2008 after the California Supreme Court recognized their right to marry even as Proposition 8 threatened to take it away.