Hon. John G. Heyburn, II, Senior District Judge for the Western District of Kentucky, died yesterday after a battle with liver cancer. Heyburn was appointed to the bench in 1992 by President George W. Bush. Prior to taking the bench, he was with the firm Brown, Todd & Heyburn for 16 years. Heyburn was in the news recently for his opinion holding that Kentucky’s laws denying same sex marriage violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment in Love, et al. v. Steve Beshear. The ruling was struck down by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and is currently being argued before the Supreme Court. Lawyers interviewed for the Almanac of the Federal Judiciary described Heyburn as having “superior” legal ability and as one of the “top judges in the country.”