Zócalo Public Square

As an Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court, Carlos R. Moreno sits on one of the country’s most innovative and followed state courts. Appointed in 2001, Moreno, the court’s only Democrat and a son of immigrants, has, as The New York Times put it, carved out principled yet empathetic positions that have won him high regard on the left and the right. He has upheld the right of counties to ban gun shows on county property, the right of consumers to sue corporations, and he has confirmed sentences in most death penalty appeals. And only days after he was being considered a candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court, Moreno issued the lone dissent in the Court’s decision to uphold Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage. Moreno visits Zócalo to discuss with UCI School of Law professor Henry Weinstein his work on the court, his advocacy on behalf of foster children, and his rise from the Solano Avenue neighborhood to the highest court in the state.