Courts, Lawyering, Media, Society

Judge Kozinski Cleared of Wrongdoing By Judicial Council — But Admonished Over Website

The judicial council of the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has cleared Chief Judge Alex Kozinski of the 9th Circuit of wrongdoing in the long investigation over sexually explicit materials on his personal website. However, the council found that he acted with “carelessness” and was “judicially imprudent.”

The council described the material as including “a photo of naked women on all fours painted to look like cows and a video of a half-dressed man cavorting with a sexually aroused farm animal.” However, such images were found to be a “small fraction” of the material on the website.

It also found that Judge Kozinski failed to take preventive steps, particularly after questions were raised: “We join with the special committee in admonishing the judge that his conduct exhibiting poor judgment with respect to this material created a public controversy that can reasonably be seen as having resulted in embarrassment to the institution of the federal judiciary.”

The controversy prompted Judge Kozinski to recuse himself from a pornography case, here.

However, the matter is now considered closed.

For the full story, click here and here.

9 thoughts on “Judge Kozinski Cleared of Wrongdoing By Judicial Council — But Admonished Over Website”

  1. Pingback: Legal Injustices Online News Agency - Federal Judge’s Racist Email May Have Violated US Ethics Code.
  2. Pingback: “Not So High Standards Of Conduct”: Federal Judge’s Racist Email May Have Violated U.S. Ethics Code « mykeystrokes.com
  3. Pingback: Obama Joke told by federal judge. - City-Data Forum

  4. Professor Turley,

    Thank you for removing that potentially virus-laden, dangerous SPAM in this thread.

    I considered SPAM removal as a much-needed “correction”. Otherwise, your site is exceptionally “clean” and a safe place to visit for an open forum.

  6. Admonishing this guy is the stupidest thing ever. I fail to see how a judge enjoying strange pornography is an embarrassment to the judiciary. (Setting aside the case he was on at the time… as you can probably tell, I think obscenity laws for adult film producers are pretty stupid.)

    Using this logic, we should all be admonished for failing to “safeguard [our] sphere of privacy” because we’re all sending email / making phone calls out in the open without using cryptography to foil the NSA.

    Yet another puritanical disgrace.

  7. Humm,

    I remember a case where the Judge and a few of us were playing poker in the jury room. He excused himself to go and do a sentencing for gambling. Now that was class.

  8. “The council described the material as including “a photo of naked women on all fours painted to look like cows and a video of a half-dressed man cavorting with a sexually aroused farm animal.”

    So if you are about to be sentenced by him,as he looks at you is he seeing these images of you in his head?

  9. That’s just funny.

    Since pornography is intimately linked to libido, didn’t they just call his sex drive “judicially imprudent” and an “embarrassment”?

    I’m pretty sure in some bars, thems a fightin’ words.

Comments are closed.