(09-29) 16:52 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, who struck down California's ban on same-sex marriage last month, will retire at the end of this year, his court said today.
Walker, 66, a former business lawyer in San Francisco, was appointed to the court by President George H.W. Bush in 1990 and began a seven-year term as chief judge of the Northern District of California in September 2004.
He will perhaps be best remembered for his Aug. 4 ruling overturning Proposition 8, the initiative passed by California voters in 2008 that defined marriage as the union of a man and a woman. The measure repealed a California Supreme Court ruling earlier that year that allowed gays and lesbians to marry.
After presiding over the nation's first federal court trial on same-sex marriage, Walker ruled that Prop. 8 discriminated on the basis of sexual orientation and gender and violated the rights of gays and lesbians to choose their marital partners.
The measure's sponsors have appealed his ruling to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Arguments are scheduled in December.
Walker also declared unconstitutional President George W. Bush's electronic surveillance program, which allowed federal agents to intercept phone calls and e-mails between Americans and alleged foreign terrorists without seeking a court warrant. The Obama administration is appealing the ruling.
Today's announcement from the court did not state a reason for Walker's retirement or describe his plans.
"Concluding 21 years of judicial service, I leave the bench with the highest respect and regard for the federal judiciary, its judges and their staff and the essential role they fulfill in our constitutional system," he said in his letter to President Obama.
U.S. District Judge James Ware of San Jose will succeed him as chief judge, a post determined by seniority.
