Who Is On the California Court?

Carlos R. Moreno was the only member of the California Supreme Court to vote to overturn the duly adopted California Marriage Amendment. He was rumored to be under consideration for SCOTUS before a "wise Latina" got the spot. Maura Dolan of the Los Angeles Times has a profile piece on him, and I wanted to look at a few key parts.

Embracing a novel theory, Moreno said he "legally and morally" believes that a measure that strips a minority of a key right can not be approved as constitutional amendment by a mere majority in an election. That's a stance the state court has never taken and, had President Obama nominated him to the U.S. Supreme Court, it could have doomed his appointment.

This means he was grasping at straws. The CMA was duly adopted and not in conflict with the federal Constitution. The court abides by the federal and state constitutions – it does not decide what belongs in them.

[Much more after the jump.]

Moreno, who has a gay nephew and lesbian niece, said in his dissent that the ballot measure was a threat to all minorities.

It's not relevant that he has homosexual people in the family. His sexual orientation isn't relevant. Most of us have homosexual people in our families. We also have children and married people in our families. Most of us will be married at some point in our lives. He probably has people in the family who voted for the California DOMA and then the Marriage Amendment. The laws apply to all of us.

"Feelings about same-sex marriage are really generational," Moreno said over lunch at a Peruvian cafe near his San Francisco chambers.

Perhaps, but younger generations get older and often move conservative.

Moreno also was the only member of the court to marry a gay couple before voters reinstated the marriage ban.

Conflict of interest?

Chief Justice Ronald M. George, who wrote the historic ruling that first allowed gays to wed in California, also had been asked to marry gay couples. He refused, saying it might create an appearance of conflict if Proposition 8 passed and came before the court.

Exactly.

This is the kind of thing we’re dealing with in California. Thankfully, the rest of the court, including people who overstepped their authority last year, decided they were only going to go so far and they deferred to clear meaning of the amendmended state constitution.