LHS alumnus Carlos Moreno, resigns as California Supreme Court Justice for life in private sector.

Carlos Moreno, California Supreme Court Justice

Many of the older alumni are more familiar with Justice Moreno, an LHS 1966 Summer Class graduate (and that Summer-Winter label is truly a sign of the old times) than the more recent LHS alumni. Justice Moreno will soon be Mr. Moreno as he's resigned from the California Supreme Court to pursue private practice after a substantial period of service.

There's a story from the February 1st edition of the "California Bar e-Journal" that will familiarize the younger people about him, as well as add some insight for many of us who actually knew him from way back. Here's the link,
http://www.calbarjournal.com/February2011/TopHeadlines/TH1.aspx

Congratulations is in order for his service on the court and we hope to see him around as he resumes practice locally.

LHS Alum, Hon. Carlos Moreno, Cal. Supreme Ct. Justice, close, but Obama's U.S. Supreme Court Nominee is Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

"President Obama has picked Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the Federal Appeals Court as his nominee for the Supreme Court. If her nomination is approved by the Senate, the 54-year-old Sotomayor will be the first Hispanic to serve on the High Court." And that's the way KABC AM 790 stated the outcome in their email. Carlos Moreno, Justice of the California Supreme Court, and LHS Cl. of 1966, was among the names on the short list for this nomination, noted as the only male of the contenders in that group.

At the time, I noted that President Obama was looking at the variouis considerations for this nomination, including party affiliation, gender, ethinic background, and of course, judicial experience and the types of decisions that were made. Judge Sotomayor is of Puerto Rican ethnicity, and had been on the federal bench in New York as a judge at various levels since 1992. She had been considered for nomination to this position when Sandra Day O'Conner retired.

The interesting thing ahout this picture, individual nominees and contenders aside for now, is that this is NOT a case where you have complete neutrality as to selection for the job. The idea of the law is that the judges will apply legal principles and weigh evidence, conduct proceedings and do all that a system is supposed to do under the law in an equal fashion without bias for any reason. Well, that's the general idea.

But this is the highest court in the nation and that idea of neutrality is something that has no real application in the selection process. You see that details are important as to a nominee. Since the appointments are for life, once they are in, they stay there. This process is as political as any election to public office ever could be. The nominee will have to go through the process of Senate confirmation and that could be an easy step or an ordeal, as history has shown.

The nominee, Judge Sotomayor satisfied two needs for President Obama: She was Latina ("Hispanic" in the government's language), and she was a female. That will cover two needs in a political context that help Obama. Experience and quality help, but all potential nominees are pretty much at or above the level to qualify for that.

Our alum, Carlos Moreno, met the need as to his ethnicity, but the female contenders had the edge and that was important. The selection process is not over and the nature of Sonia Sotomayor's decisions will be evaluated by the politicians to try to see how she will affect the future of the legal decisions to be made by the Court. Too much controversy is not good and there's lots more that can sway the choice on approval.

Getting to the nominee's personal background, you can see that education was a key to her achievement, a strong value in their family as she grew up. The Washington Post story includes the following,

Most importantly, at an early age, her mother instilled in Sotomayor and her brother a belief in the power of education. Driven by an indefatigable work
ethic, and rising to the challenge of managing a diagnosis of juvenile diabetes, Sotomayor excelled in school. Sotomayor graduated as valedictorian of her class at Blessed Sacrament and at Cardinal Spellman High School in New York. She first heard about the Ivy League from her high school debate coach, Ken Moy, who attended Princeton University, and she soon followed in his footsteps after winning a scholarship.

The above information is from the Washington Post's website 44 that presents the White House's presentation in "Primary Source, Sotomayor: The White House Story." http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/05/26/the_white_house_has_issued.html?wprss=44

In today's announcement, there's already criticism by some factions, but what did I say about this being a political process? A criticism of a case of "reverse discrimination" was raised that involved White firefighters challenging the invalidation of an exam that was said to be biased against a minority group.

Trying to say "reverse discrimination" is another kind of discrimination is an incorrect analysis. This identification itself handles the label of "discrimination" in what I think is wrong. There is really no "reverse" discrimination without assigning some fixed reference point to base your judgment on. Something that involves discrimination or unfair treatment based on some distinguishing factor, usually an unchangeable characteristic, IS "discrimination," and to apply a qualification of "reverse" here seeks to put one type of action as the primary set of facts or method that arises and then everything else is different or "reverse," implying subordinate. To me, that already loads the question and makes for a lot of prejudgment on the issue.

Something is discrimination or it is not. The label "reverse" feeds the common views. People have the stereotypes in their heads and being "unusual" or infrequently encountered makes "reverse discrimination" a catchy phrase to apply as a label, but no less offensive.

And on all that, we shall see, but the selection process for a nominee is an entirely political one with lots of planning involved. The confirmation phase will continue to be considering whatever elements or features that people can connect up with the suitability for the position as Supreme Court Justice.

No matter that this nomination went to another jurist, it still was a substantial accomplishment for Justice Moreno to be considered here. The thing that we should notice is that the family is often the source of giving education a high value as a factor for these people as noted by Judge Sotomayor and in other remarks of the past by Justice Moreno.

The idea that education is not valued by so many, both students and families, in LAUSD and in other districts, is what I think would be the most influential factor for producing the poor outcomes that we are having from the school systems. If that would change, a lot more improvement would follow. It's not the case for all of the students, but for many, too many. The family, as many already knew, is the most influential source of a person's knowledge and values from an early age.

Mayor Tony's not happy these days with Council or L.A. Magazine; Good news, Cal.S.Ct. Justice Moreno in running for U.S. S.Ct.

After taking some time from posting and just observing what's going on, it's hard to be positive about the political situation and the economy, but sometimes seeing reality hit high-profile figures is satisfying for the good and the bad things. Just to be brief- for a change- here's some of what I have noticed in case you have been too busy to see such items.

It's good to know that the Mayor is able to break out of that phony friendly, handshaking, photo-opping role he plays when he showed his displeasure, or even some real anger, when he responded to the City Council's budget committee's recommendation to put a hiring freeze on police. You will remember that this 1,000 officer goal has been Tony's major hook to hang his had for any accomplishment and this is about all that's left in his administration that he's almost achieved.

And that achievement is an expensive one. Mayor Tony, in effect, "threw the L.A. residents under the bus" as far as costs to be paid, boosting the trash collection fee by triple what it was, cancelling the "step-increases" of a gradual increase over 3 years for "quick cash." That STILL did not pay the bill as promised and the charges continue to get this thing happening, at all costs, at all costs TO US, not to TONY. It's a political tool, one thing he needs for his Governor's race aspirations. So his anger (and it may be "rage") overshadows all common sense from a position of economic survival of the city. I hope the Council does not yield on this point. See below for what I mean of disappointing Council performance.

They told you "L.A. residents have to pay for this service like other cities and not expect it for free anymore." I think Greig Smith was that messenger of baloney- what was so annoying about his statement, and he can be as annoying as any of the CMs, is that it was all a lie.

Being a lie spoken in City Council chambers is nothing new. It's come to be part of the procedure, like expecting that ball players will sweat while playing their games. But the trash expense WAS part of what was part of city planning in budgets and SUPPPOSED to be in the lump sum tax bill. Only now the change was that the Council got their marching orders from the Mayor that they needed to "generate more revenue"- so the "trash fee" was extracted to become a separate item so they could justify attaching a separate bill to create more billing for residents.

That was one fraud of many that continue to be perpetrated against the L.A. public. The Mayor has hit the cover of L.A. Magazine in a big way. "Failure" printed boldly across his photo- something that will get his attention, no doubt. It's coming out Monday and the picture is the big clue to what the content of the article will demonstrate.

Better news-Lincoln High alum Carlos Moreno of the Summer Class of 1966, who may be more precisely addressed as Hon. Carlos Moreno, Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court, is on the "short list" for appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court to fill in a vacancy that is created by the announced retirement of Justice Souter.

In the Chicago Tribune's Washington Bureau blog, "The Swamp"- you will find some reader comments after the main story that gives you a brief summary of the situation. http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2009/05/carlos_moreno_supreme_court_ca.html
I haven't seen Carlos Moreno in recent years, but I have seen him from time to time since leaving Lincoln High, mostly before he was a judge, and less frequently afterwards. He's been a supporter of alumni activities and in my opinion a good person- and importantly, there's lots of judges who are nowhere near that, too. But combining those contacts with what I see of his work and opinions as a judge, it would be a very satisfying selection all around to see him replace retiring Justice David Souter on the Supreme Court.

Justice Moreno is the only male on the "list" according to one network's story. "Women Dominate Supreme Court Short List;President Obama Is Considering Mostly Women As He Narrows Down List Of Possible Successors To David Souter," the CBS News blog, dateline: WASHINGTON, May 13, 2009. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/05/13/politics/main5012138.shtml If you consider that the Obama administration is trying to be all things to all people, something that makes it very susceptible to not working out well, the appointment of a woman to the position is urged by many groups, of course, The appointment of a Latino (or "Hispanic," as the governement calls this group, a label that I thoroughly despise as being completely a synthetic creation of government, and misleading- not to mention that having "panic" is a word is another undesireable) is another goal, and there's Latina candidates for the position, as well.

If Justice Moreno is to prevail as nominee, he has to overcome that and other competition. A Latina nominee would hit two goals for the administration, and that's one point. A condition that I have observed in Latino involvement in political things, and most things, for that matter, is that there's lots of "in-fighting" among competing groups within the Latino cultures- and that's a plural that I insert, since what's included are many different groups and cultures under that label. When one gets ahead, you can count on someone or group to jump in and derail the move for any of a number of reasons.

When people talk of the "Latino Community" (or "Hispanic Community", ugh) it's a fiction. What is that? I might as well insert here my disdain for those who jump in front of the news cameras and say, "We represent the "_______ community' and we say......." Really? Who voted them in? All a fiction and positions and words that are generated when there is a commotion of a social or political movement in progress. But all that behind us, we can see that the female Latina jurist, U.S. Appeals Court judge Sonia Sotomayor is a prime challenger for the position.

Whoever is selected will have to get through the confirmation hearings to finally get the appointment approved, so whoever gets the nod will have to manage this item that may or may not be a huge obstacle, but other nominees have been kept from the appointment at this point.

Well, that's my little blurb, prompted by many who anticipated I would write about Justice Moreno, as if I didn't know about it, but it's still a positive item that will take care of itself, and the upcoming local elections are so pressing for all that they represent in day to day life, that I did not give much thought to this judicial matter. Good luck on this, Carlos.

More to come on all of this later. One more thing- DON'T vote for outgoing City Council Member JACK WEISS- total bad news. Carmen Trutanich for City Attorney- a seasoned attorny and with actual prosecutorial experience and not a rubber-stamp rookie for Mayor Villaraigosa like Jack, his shadow, is. The more you know of Jack Weiss, the more you will dislike him for what he does and has failed to do.