Posts on ‘July 27th, 2009’

Carlos Moreno stood alone in May when he dissented from the decision upholding Proposition 8. But the California Supreme Court justice says history will prove him right — that denying gays and lesbians the right to marry is illegal. Moreno, one of four justices to back same-sex marriage last year and the sole vote against Prop 8 this year, took time to talk about his votes, his brief moment on Obama’s short list for the nation’s highest court, and Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s controversial “wise Latina” comment.

The New Jersey Supreme Court has overturned a $71.8 million medical malpractice award to the family of a brain-damaged infant, finding the trial judge’s serious errors during jury selection and disparate treatment of counsel made the trial hopelessly unfair. The court unanimously held that Judge Francine Schott’s voir dire process failed to screen for bias against the defendants and that her apparent favoritism toward the plaintiffs counsel cast doubt on her fairness to such a degree that she should not preside at the retrial.