June 13th, 2008
Kozinski's porn site: Nobody's business if he do?
Granted, it’s got to be embarrassing for Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski to have his private porn stash exposed – especially when presiding over an obscenity trial.
But in an editorial, the L.A. Times, which broke the story, asks this question: So what?
Not everyone may like it, but pornography is freely available on the Internet, whether it be from a commercial site dedicated to adults-only material or from the personal site of the chief judge of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. …
Scolds who argue that judges should uphold a higher standard of decorum than the common citizen and should somehow be prevented from engaging in such private activity as gathering subjectively amusing or even appalling smut should recall that the 1st Amendment is not limited to high-minded endeavors.
Chief scold: Dianne Feinstein, who said in a statement, “If this is true, this is unacceptable behavior for a federal court judge.”
Kozinski has called for the Judicial Council to investigate.
I have asked the Judicial Council of the Ninth Circuit to take steps pursuant to Rule 26, of the Rules Governing Judicial Conduct and Disability, and to initiate proceedings concerning the article that appeared in yesterday’s Los Angeles Times. I will cooperate fully in any investigation.
Salacious details and images are here.
I take the Times’ point about First Amendment rights extending to federal judges. But the story, as Deborah Rhode at Stanford Law School told the WSJ Law Blog, “at the very least displays an extraordinary lack of judgment.”
The biggest loser is Kozinski himself who can kiss goodbye that Supreme Court seat for which he was considered a prime candidate.
