In his excellent op-ed today in the New York Times—“Stacking the Deck Against Proposition 8”—former Attorney General Ed Meese outlines Judge Vaughn Walker’s very one-sided pre-trial rulings, including his decision to put the personal beliefs of Proposition 8’s sponsors on trial.

This passage from an article in California Lawyer also paints Walker as the moving force pressing for a trial of factual issues (when similar cases have elsewhere been decided as a matter of law):

On July 2, Walker opened the case-management conference by emphasizing that his court was a trial court, not the U.S. Supreme Court. Later in the proceeding he asked [counsel for plaintiffs, Ted] Olson, “There certainly is some discovery that is going to be necessary here, isn’t there?”

“I’m not sure,” Olson replied. “Is there discovery necessary? If there is, what is it? What form would it take?”