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L.A. Democratic Party chairman Eric Bauman was right in our post last night. Associate Justice Carlos Moreno has resigned from the California Supreme Court, effective Feb. 28. He just won reconfirmation in November, but the San Francisco Chronicle reports that Moreno cites "family concerns, finances and Brown's election" as his reasons.
The Democratic governor's victory "gives me a certain comfort level" about who his replacement will be, Moreno said in an interview.A weekly commuter from Los Angeles who is not among the San Francisco-based court's wealthier members, Moreno said he could better provide for his family - which includes a daughter with autism and a son who wants to go to law school - by working as a lawyer or a private arbitrator.
Supreme Court justices make $218,237 a year.
Moreno is described by the Chronicle's Bob Egelko as "the California Supreme Court's only Democratic appointee and Latino and the author of some of its most important gay-rights opinions."