Legal News

A ?Pleased? Kozinski Cleared of Wrongdoing

By Ashby Jones

Frankly, we can’t say we’re surprised. Ninth Circuit chief judge Alex Kozinski has been cleared of wrongdoing by a panel of judges from the Third Circuit. The panel investigated allegations that Kozinski had a Web site that contained obscene images; allegations which were made by a disgruntled litigant. Click here for the Third Circuit’s opinion; here for coverage from Above the Law; here, here and here for earlier LB posts.

In June of last year, the LAT reported that Kozinski, who at the time was presiding over an obscenity trial in Los Angeles, has maintained a publicly accessible Web site featuring sexually explicit photos and videos. Kozinski ended up recusing himself from the trial.

But the Web site, it turned out, wasn’t one at all: it was a private server hosted by one of Kozinski’s sons. Ruled the Third Circuit panel: “The material in the stuff subdirectory was plainly intended to be private and not to be presented as a public website.” The Third Circuit panel “admonished” Kozinski for failing to secure the server properly, but held, in the end:

The Judge explained and admitted his error; apologized for it, recognizing its impact on the judiciary; and committed to changing his conduct to avoid any recurrence of the error. The offending material has been removed and will be destroyed. The Judge's 35 acknowledgment of responsibility combined with the corrective actions he has already completed or has committed to pursue and his apology, along with our admonishment, made public in this opinion, properly "remed[y] the problems raised by the complaint." Rule 11(d)(2). Accordingly, this proceeding is properly concluded. We find that "all of the purposes of the judicial misconduct provisions are fully served" by this result.

A handful of prominent ethics experts, including NYU’s Stephen Gillers, Northwestern’s Steven Lubet and Hofstra’s Monroe Friedman, all sent letters in support of Kozinski.

Judge Kozinski sent us the following statement:

I asked the Third Circuit Court of Appeals to thoroughly review this matter, and I am pleased that today’s unanimous decision reaffirms what I have said all along about my private files: They were kept on a private server and were not intended to be shared publicly. Our Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has much important work to do, and I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues to accomplish our goals.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on July 02, 2009 (boomark / email).