Alex Kozinski

From Judgepedia

Alex Kozinski (born July 23, 1950) is the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Youth

Kozinski was born 1950 in Bucharest, Romania but his parents, both Holocaust survivors, brought him to America in 1962 when he was 12. They settled in Los Feliz, Los Angeles and his father, Moses, ran a small grocery store there. According to Kozinski, he was a "very committed communist" while a boy in Romania, and he was eager to move to the United States to "educate workers of the West that they were being enslaved by capitalist exploiters."^[1] Later, Kozinski changed his politics to pro-capitalism upon introduction to "bubblegum and chocolate," claiming humorously that he was "easily bought off" as a young boy. ^[2]

Education and Influences

Kozinski attended the University of California, Los Angeles. He received his B.A. in economics from UCLA in 1972 and his Juris Doctor from the UCLA School of Law in 1975; he went on to clerk for then-Ninth Circuit Judge Anthony M. Kennedy and Chief Justice Warren Burger.

Kozinski counts Ayn Rand as one of his early influences. "I read Ayn Rand when I was around 19. But I'd sort of worked it out on my own by then. I liked The Fountainhead quite a bit. She was a very fine writer and by and large her philosophy has legs."^[3] Despite this appreciation, however, Kozinski does not fully embrace Objectivism, Rand's famous philosophy. "But there was a lot of stuff [Rand] said that I'm skeptical about." He notes that Rand was categorically opposed to altruism, yet explains his own appreciation of charity. "[M]y father survived because people risked their lives to get him food. And he too got an affirmative pleasure out of being helpful to people. For me, the idea of altruism and selfishness merge because I enjoy helping people."^[4]

Another influence on Judge Kozinski is Milton Friedman and the economic school of thought characterized by the University of Chicago. "I had all the classical economists, and that helped. Adam Smith, David Ricardo. They ground me in economics."^[5]

Early Career

Kozinski spent the years from 1977 to 1981 in private practice in California and Washington D.C. In 1980, Kozinski was working as deputy legal counsel for the Office of the President-Elect before going to serve as a counsel in the White House under President Ronald Reagan in 1981.^[6]

Judicial Career

Kozinski's first judicial appointment was as chief judge at the newly-formed United States Court of Federal Claims in 1982. In 1985, age 35, Kozinski was appointed to a new seat at the Ninth Circuit by Reagan, making him the youngest federal appeals court judge in the country. Defending the court against criticism because of a controversial decision, Kozinski went on record emphasizing judicial independence: "It seems to me that this is what makes this country truly great -- that we can have a judiciary where the person who appoints you doesn't own you."^[7] He also took a stand against the charge that the Ninth Court is overly liberal, which led some to call it "The Notorious Ninth": "And yet I can say with some confidence that cries that the 9th Circuit is so liberal are just simply misplaced."

On November 30, 2007, Judge Kozinski received the gavel as the tenth Chief Judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.^[8]

Judicial Style

Kozinski has a reputation for his libertarian inclinations, coming to arguments with both conservatives and liberals on the Ninth Circuit. He states, "I disagree with the liberals on the bench half of the time and the conservatives the other half."^[9] Kozinski's legal writing has a reputation for being "witty" and "acerbic."^[10] One notable example of this type of legal writing is in United States v. Ramirez-Lopez (2003),^[11] where Kozinski uses a "bitingly funny dialogue" in his dissent to explain the court's ruling as, essentially, denying due process in order to have a fair trial.^[12]

Notable cases

MLB steroids case

Judge Kozinski on September 2, 2009, ordered the preservation of evidence that proved 104 Major League Baseball players tested positive for steroids in 2003. The ruling comes after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that federal agents incorrectly seized information on 104 players when the warrant authorized that only authorities could get information on 10 players. However, federal prosecutors will be asking for the case to be frozen and requesting the Supreme Court of the United States to review the case claiming that the judge's ruling conflicts with other high court rulings in regards to search and seizure^[13].

In the News: Articles

Reason Magazine Interview (2006)

Judge Kozinski touched on a lot of issues when he sat down with Shikha Dalmia of Reason Magazine. Here are some excerpts from that conversation:

(On Free Speech) "I believe that the First and the Second Amendments are the ultimate barriers against totalitarianism. Of course, there are limits, but they are very broad. It all varies from case to case—what the body count is. I am not categorically always on the side of free speech or privacy or anything else. It’s possible to hurt people with speech through libel, defamation, slander, or blackmail. But in general, I think the remedy in these cases is more speech. I’m very skeptical of the government coming in and prohibiting or punishing speech."^[14]

"There are always threats to free speech. Government doesn’t like to be criticized. Owners of copyrights and other intellectual property rights are very grabby. They think they own everything, or they think they invented everything. And the big problem is drawing the line between what’s protected by copyright and what’s in the public domain."^[15]

(On Privacy Rights) "People tend to depend too much on the courts for protecting their liberties. Courts have a role to play, but people basically have to protect themselves by changing their behavior. If you are worried about outside people monitoring your e-mails, don't e-mail. If you don't want your actions tracked via a credit card, pay cash."^[16]

When Reason Magazine asked about President George W. Bush using the War on Terror as a pretext for using wiretapping without a warrant, Kozinski, acknowledging that his judicial oath prohibited him from commenting, was forced to respond "[t]hat's a legal issue, and when I get the case I'll tell you."^[17] The question was then rephrased as "[d]oes your gut instinct say they went too far or that this was a legitimate use of the president's powers for national security?" Kozinski responded that "I can afford to have instincts about medicine because I don't practice medicine, but I can't afford to have instincts about law. When it comes to law, I have to follow the law. I don't know enough about the case. But I'm not prepared to say offhand that it's illegal. Presumably the president is doing it for a legitimate purpose. I don't think he's doing it because he's interested in your sex life."^[18]

(Property Rights and Intellectual Property) "Nobody writes anything from scratch. We all build on the past from a shared public domain of ideas. We use copyrighted ideas to communicate with each other. For instance, when you say someone has a Barbie personality, it describes something without having to go into a thousand details. But Mattel, the inventor of Barbie, hates it. People who own those trademarks and copyrights want to control the way people communicate, and they have the ear of Congress right now. Congress just extended copyright terms again [in 1998]."^[19]

Reason Magazine asked the following question to Judge Kozinski, "[s]o have we tipped the balance too much on the side of inventors as opposed to society’s interest in accessing their ideas when it comes to intellectual property rights?" He responded with "[t]he problem is that some people think of copyrights as an extension of property rights. And that’s OK. But maintaining a public domain makes property more valuable. A lot of things that copyright owners complain about are things that are actually good for them. Movie studios were really worried about Betamax. It seems quaint now, but they almost killed the video store business. It’s now a big source of revenue for them."^[20]

Web Site Controversy

According to the Associated Press, a federal judge overseeing an obscenity trial exploring the extreme fringe of pornography posted explicit photos and videos on his personal Web site, a newspaper reported Wednesday. Alex Kozinski, chief judge of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said he thought the material on his Web site couldn't be seen by the public, the Los Angeles Times reported on its Web site. The images included a video of a "half-dressed man cavorting with a sexually aroused farm animal," the newspaper reported.

Kozinski, who has since blocked public access to the site, said he didn't believe the images were obscene.

"Is it prurient? I don't know what to tell you," he told the newspaper. "I think it's odd and interesting. It's part of life."

The revelation about Kozinski came as opening statements were under way in the trial of Ira Isaacs, a businessman accused of breaking U.S. obscenity laws by distributing pornographic movies that depict extreme fetishes.^[21].

On July 2, 2009, Judge Kozinski was cleared of misconduct using procedures defined by the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act of 1980 but was admonished by his judicial peers. However the panel of judicial peers found Kozinski to be "careless" and "judicially imprudent" in possessing the material and not safeguarding his files. Also, the same panel ruled that the judge also failed to fully correct the problem when it was discovered. The panel found no need to discipline Kozinski, as the judge recused himself from an obscenity trial under way last year when news broke that explicit photos and videos were available through the Web address alex.kozinski.com^[22].

Kozinski thought that the material which included a video of a man cavorting with a sexually aroused farm animal and a picture of nude women on all fours and painted to look like cows couldn't be seen by the public. Judge Kozinski also said he didn't believe any of the images was obscene^[22].

In the admonishment of Judge Kozinski, chief judge of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals Anthony Scirica wrote: "His conduct exhibited poor judgment." Judge Scirca also said: "moreover, once the Judge became aware in 2007 that offensive material could be accessed by members of the public, his inattention to the need for prompt corrective action amounted to a disregard of a serious risk of public embarrassment"^[22].

External links

• The Unofficial Judge Alex Kozinski Site: Comprehensive source for writings, press mentions, and more.
• List of articles by Kozinski (up to date as of March 30, 2007)
• Campaign contributions made by Judge Alex Kozinski
• Interview with Alex Kozinski and Stephen Reinhardt
• NY Times: Judge Kozinski's 'Nomination Letter' to the Judicial Hottie contest.
• LA Times: The 9th Circuit's New No. 1

References

Additional Sources

• Bazelon, Emily. "The Big Kozinski". LegalAffairs, January-February 2004. Retrieved on April 30, 2006.
• Federal Judicial Center. "Kozinski, Alex". Retrieved on April 30, 2006
• (PBS). "Controversial Court". Retrieved on April 30, 2006.

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Portions of this article have been taken from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Copyright Notice can be found here.

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