Why Yes

Justice Carlos R. Moreno

When he was sworn in as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of California in 2001, Justice Carlos Moreno chose to relinquish his lifetime seat on the U.S. District Court where he had appointment in 1998 by President Bill Clinton. On the state's highest court, he has the opportunity to address major issues involving social policy, help direct what shape laws will take.

Justice Carlos R. Moreno was the one member of the California Supreme Court who opposed proposition 8 in the 6-1 vote. Moreno wrote, "I conclude that requiring discrimination against a minority group on the basis of a suspect classification strikes at the core of the promise of equality that underlies our California Constitution.”

In opposition to the majority opinion, Moreno argued that because Proposition 8 drastically changed the "nature and operation" of governmental structure it should be considered a revision of the constitution rather than an amendment. Plaintiffs had argued that such a major change to constitution must be considered a revision, which cannot be voted on through the initiative process.

He referred to California's equal protection clause, which protects fundamental rights of minorities from the will of the majority, as the main principle of the constitution. "Proposition 8’s withdrawal of any of those rights from gays and lesbians cannot be accomplished through constitutional amendment," he wrote.

Proposition 8, he argued, demonstrated an "unprecedented instance of a majority of voters altering the meaning of the equal protection cause." Moreno also cited the Iowa Supreme Court’s April argument for allowing same-sex marriage and said today's majority ruling "weakens the status of our state constitution."