Judge Vaughn Walker, the now-retired federal judge in San Francisco who nullified California's Proposition 8 in 2010, said if judges really are umpires, they must sometimes "move the strike zone" in order to champion social issues like same-sex marriage.

"Case by case, what judges do and must do is take account of the pitcher and the batter in the legal arena, watch the windup, the throw, the curve, and the delivery and then, where they believe appropriate, move the strike zone," Walker wrote on Aug. 28 in the University of Illinois Law Review.

... In his article, Walker said federal judges must "reflect the common understanding of the day" and that "clear and fixed legal rules" do not exist.

"There is no fixed 'strike zone,'" Walker wrote.

The former chief federal judge for the Northern District of California, Walker has drawn criticism for not disclosing his homosexuality until after he retired from the federal bench in 2011 -- not during the 2010 trial on same-sex marriage.

In the article, Walker said judges are well-suited to "reject or correct" laws that are based on "discredited understandings" or "dogmas born of myths and unsubstantiated beliefs." -- CNSNews.com