Judge Switcheroo in Prop 8 Case

A new judge has been assigned to the case against Prop 8, and his attitude toward LGBTs is somewhat of a mystery.

The case, Perry v. Schwarzenegger, lives in several different courts at the moment. It was ruled unconstitutional by Judge Vaughn Walker in a Federal District Court, then appealed to the 9th Circult appellate court. Then the 9th Circuit judges sent a piece of the case over to the California Supreme Court to be examined.

The latest judge to get involved is James Ware. He's replacing Vaughn Walker, who retired at the end of 2010.

Little is known about Ware's attitudes on marriage. He once ruled that students are eligible to sue their school districts for anti-gay harassment, but that's about as close as he's ever come to the issue.

Ware may or may not have a chance to act on the case. It all depends on how oral arguments go before the Supreme Court, and that's not scheduled until September.

The plaintiffs in the case asked the Supreme Court to hurry the proceedings along by moving those arguments up to May, but that request was denied. A spokesperson for the court explained that September is already sooner than the justices would have preferred to hear the case.

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