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An L.A. Jury + Hours of Hard-Core Fetish Porn + Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, Presiding = Total Awesomeness

Wednesday, June 11, 2008 2:10 PM - By David Lat

Alex Kozinski small Alex S Kozinski Judge Above the Law hot hottie superhottie federal judiciary.JPGOne of our favorite members of the federal judiciary — the brilliant and hilarious Alex Kozinski, Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit — is in the headlines once again. Interestingly enough, it’s not for any appellate decision, but for a trial he’s presiding over (sitting by designation as a district judge).

And it’s no ordinary trial. From a tipster:

The Hon. Alex Kozinski, the (still-reigning?) #1 Superhottie of the Federal Judiciary, will be presiding over a trial — yes, you read that right — in an obscenity case involving a fetishist named Ira Isaacs.

More details, from the Los Angeles Times:

Ira Isaacs says his films, which feature bestiality and defecation, have artistic value. Federal prosecutors say they are criminally obscene. Hours of footage will help jurors decide who’s right.

Fun stuff. This is one jury that won’t need Sudoku to stay awake.

In an article on Monday, the Los Angeles Times reported:

[Chief Judge Kozinski’s] involvement in the case may be a stroke of luck for Isaacs. That is because Kozinski is seen as a staunch defender of free speech. When he learned that there were filters banning pornography and other materials from computers in the appeals court’s Pasadena offices, he led a successful effort to have the filters removed.

Perhaps even luckier than expected? Learn why, after the jump.

From a follow-up article, just posted to the L.A. Times website:

One of the highest-ranking federal judges in the United States, who is currently presiding over an obscenity trial in Los Angeles, has maintained a publicly accessible website featuring sexually explicit photos and videos.

Alex Kozinski, chief judge of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, acknowledged in an interview with The Times that he had posted the materials, which included 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. Some of the material was inappropriate, he conceded, although he defended other sexually explicit content as “funny.”

MOO! Should Chief Judge Kozinski recuse himself?

Stephen Gillers, a New York University law professor who specializes in legal ethics, told The Times that Kozinski should recuse himself from the Isaacs case because “the public can reasonably question his objectivity” concerning the issues at hand.

Gillers, who has known Kozinski for years and called him “a treasure of the federal judiciary,” said he took the judge at his word that he did not know the site was publicly available. But he said Kozinski was “seriously negligent” in allowing it to be discovered.

Do you agree or disagree? Take our reader poll below, and opine in the comments.

Update (3:00 PM): The WSJ Law Blog has more on the story over here.

Update (6/12/08): A follow-up post on this story appears here. Note especially the update, reporting the suspension of the trial.

Upcoming trial will see hours of hard-core fetish pornography [Los Angeles Times]
9th Circuit’s chief judge posted sexually explicit matter on his website [Los Angeles Times]
LA obscenity case nauseates some potential jurors [AP]

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Posted in: 9th Circuit, Alex Kozinski, Federal Judges, Pornography, Trials

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