A circuit and method are provided for ensuring a non-desired output state of a latch or flip-flop cannot be produced. The latch can be configured as a set dominant, reset dominant, or memory dominant circuit by simply placing programmed voltage values on select transistors of the latch. The programmed values will cause either the set input, the reset input, or both set and reset inputs to have a complimentary effect on the output signals even though the set and reset inputs are at the same logic level. The set, reset, and memory dominant circuit is identical in structure; however, the set, reset, and memory dominant features are derived solely by placing programmed values on corresponding transistors within the identical structure. A generic latch circuit can, therefore, be said to operate in one of three dominant ways depending on the programmed values chosen by a selector and fed to a prioritizer.