I did not like or agree with the judge’s ruling. That said, his being Gay, which we in the “legal community” all knew, no more disqualifies him than being straight would.
It would be different only if he and his partner planned to get married at the time he made the decision.
No way the decision gets tossed on this.
Were he and his partner already married?
If not, how does anyone know they were not planning marriage?
As a lay person that’s something I believe we have to take his word on.
If he could materially benefit from deciding one way, would that not disqualify him from sitting over this case?
Well, law does train people to be sophists, and sophists by definition disdain the truth. But the judge was in effect saying: my opinion is that I have the right to marry, and so the law must be made to conform to my opinion.