Justice Cowed: How “obscene” were the videos Kozinski’s recused himself from the case over?

13 Jun

Filed Under Judge Alex Kozinski | Leave a Comment

Kozinski cow girl With a one sentence explanation, one of the most respected judicial authorities on the First Amendment, Judge Alex Kozinski, removed himself from what will likely become a landmark obscenity case.

“In light of the public controversy surrounding my involvement in this case, I have concluded that there is a manifest necessity to declare a mistrial. I recuse myself from further participation in the case and will ask the chief judge of the district court to reassign it to another judge.”

Did Judge Kozinski need to be cowed into this decision? How necessary was this recusal? Our opinion, as previously described, is that the judge’s awareness of run-of-the-mill “viral humor” made him more likely to be an impartial magistrate than a judge too cloistered to have a practical sense of “contemporary community standards” even if the public perception of the whole website controversy might tend towards irrational umbrage.

How similar are the images discovered on the Kozinski family computer and images at issue in USA vs. Ira Isaacs?� Judge for yourself.� USLaw.com has compiled several still images form the videos contained in the Isaacs indictment.� (WARNING: Extremely graphic.)

We happen to agree with former Kozinski clerk, law professor and prolific legal blogger Eugene Volokh that the humor on the judge’s server are not remotely in the same league as Isaac’s art. We are therefore uncertain of the ‘manifest necessity’ existed on behalf of the parties at trial or on behalf of the judge at the bench.

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND:

Interviews with the artist, Ira Isaacs: AVN, Radar.

The USA vs Ira Isaacs dba “STOLEN CAR FILMS” dba “LaMedia” indictment.

What “Stuff” was on Judge Kozinski’s Personal Website?

12 Jun

Filed Under Judge Alex Kozinski | 8 Comments

Judge Alex Kozinski: The Skunk hit the fan An aggrieved attorney encouraged the LA Times to discover pornographic material on the website of a respected Appeals Court Judge who is presiding over a federal case of a filmmaker accused of distributing “criminally obscene” videos depicting bestiality and defecation. While the Times described the pornographic content found on the personal website alex.kozinski.com of Alex Kozinski, chief judge of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, as including a photo of naked women on all fours painted to look like cows, a video of a half-dressed man cavorting with a sexually aroused farm animal, images of masturbation and public and contortionist sex, a slide show striptease featuring a transsexual, a series of photos of women’s crotches as seen through snug fitting clothing or underwear, and content with themes of defecation and urination, the Times did not reveal the specific URL of the material or display the described images so that readers could form their own opinion about their characterization.

USLaw.com has been able to partially recreate the content which was described by Judge Kozinski, known for his often outlandish sense of humor, as “funny… odd and interesting… part of life”. The hundred plus files constitute the type of “viral videos” and images that are commonly circulated among men of a certain humor by email. Very few appear to contain any nudity and those that do present it in the context of humor (though the type of humor that may arouse the enmity of some feminists and moral fundamentalists). The files are no longer available to be downloaded from what is now claimed to have been the Kozinski family computer, so we have provided several images that were reportedly captured from the server by the Times’ tipster in December, 2007 and others which internet archival services indicate resided on the server in the recent past. In addition, links are provided to google search results which contain files whose names, and therefore content, are similar to those that existed on the server:

Files Described but not Shown by LA Times