NYT Analysis on Prop 8 Ruling

Justice Carlos R. Moreno

The New York Times story on the Proposition 8 ruling contains this fabulous analogy which gets to the heart of why the California Supreme Court's ruling in Strauss was so wrong:

Karl M. Manheim, a professor at Loyola Law School Los Angeles who had filed a brief with the court opposing Proposition 8, called the decision a “safe” one from justices who can be recalled by voters. The change wrought by Proposition 8 was anything but narrow, Professor Manheim said, and claiming that the word “marriage” is essentially symbolic is like telling black people that sitting in the back of the bus is not important as long as the front and the back of the bus arrive at the same time.

[...]

The sole dissenting vote in Tuesday’s decision came from Justice Carlos R. Moreno, previously mentioned as a possible choice by President Obama for the United States Supreme Court.

Justice Moreno wrote that Proposition 8 means “requiring discrimination,” which he said “strikes at the core of the promise of equality that underlies our California Constitution” and, he added, “places at risk the state constitutional rights of all disfavored minorities.”

If you are as big a fan of Justice Carlos R. Moreno as I am now, please send him a letter praising his dissent in the Prop 8 case at:

Hon. Carlos R. Moreno
California Supreme Court
350 McAllister Street
San Francisco, 94102

Moreno is up for re-appointment to the California Supreme Court before the voters in November 2010. Let's make sure he gets a full 12 year term.