In Defense of Chief Judge Kozinski: A Linkwrap
The controversy surrounding Chief Judge Alex Kozinski is rapidly dissipating -- and with good reason. He has recused himself from the Ira Isaacs obscenity trial, and he's called for an investigation of any potential misconduct on his part. So, to quote his website, "Ain't nothin' here. Y'all best be movin' on, compadre."
We've read tons of Kozinski coverage (so you don't have to). Here are three of the most important posts:
1. The wife of Chief Judge Kozinski has come to his defense, over at Patterico's Pontifications:
My name is Marcy Tiffany. I have been married to Alex Kozinski for over thirty years and we have raised three sons together..... [T]he LA Times story, authored by Scott Glover, is riddled with half-truths, gross mischaracterizations and outright lies. One significant mischaracterization is that Alex was maintaining some kind of "website" to which he posted pornographic material.Obviously, Glover's use of the word "website" was intended to convey a false image of a carefully designed and maintained graphical interface, with text, pictures, sound and hyperlinks, such as businesses maintain or that individuals can set up on Facebook, rather than a bunch of random files located in one of many folders stored on our family's file server. The "server" is actually just another home computer that sits next to my desk in our home office, and that we use to store files, perform back-ups, and route the Internet to the family network. It has no graphical interface, but if you know the precise location of a file, you can access it either from one of the home computers or remotely.
Using the term "website" also gives the impression that Alex was actively aware of all of the material, when, in fact, it had accumulated over a number of years and he didn't even remember that some of that stuff had been stored there or whether it had been put there by him or one of our sons, who also have access to the server.
That's just an excerpt; read the whole thing over here.
2. Professor Eugene Volokh, a former clerk to Chief Judge Kozinski, offers his thoughts over at the Volokh Conspiracy. Money quote:
Kozinski has a quirky sense of humor, and keeps some joke pictures and videos on his computer rather than throwing them away. I'm sure they aren't the kinds of things some people would enjoy seeing. But he wasn't trying to show them to those people! He was just minding his own business, keeping some files on his own private server. And now it's a national news story.Enough already.
3. Professor Volokh's post concludes by quoting the analysis of Professor Lawrence Lessig, another leading legal academic and cyberlaw guru. Professor Lessig writes:
When it comes to government invasions of our privacy, we are (and rightly) a privacy obsessed people. We need to extend some of that obsession to the increasingly common violations by private people against other private people. There is nothing for Chief Judge Kozinski to defend because he has violated no law, and we live in a free society (or so he thought when he immigrated from Romania). A free society should feed the right to be left alone, including the right not to have to defend publicly private choices and taste, by learning not to feed the privacy trolls.
That's just the tail end of a long and thoughtful post. Read it in full by clicking here.
Alex Kozinski's Wife Speaks Out [Patterico's Pontifications via Volokh Conspiracy (Jonathan Adler)]
Alex Kozinski [Volokh Conspiracy (Eugene Volokh)]
The Kozinski mess [Lessig Blog (Larry Lessig)]
(65) Comments
I wonder if his wife is embarrassed by basically having to admit that her husband enjoys porn, and some raunchy porn at that...
Lessig, Volokh, and Kozinski's wife all repeat various errors and false statements regarding Kozinski's files/website/server.
The files were unambiguously part of the public internet and search engines most definitely DID index the directories because the "robots.txt" file was NOT set up to maintain privacy from search engine robots. Finding the files on the website thus required only the very, very easy step of plugging "alex.kozinski.com" into any search engine. The knowledge that "alex.kozinski.com" belonged to Judge Kozinski was widespread and, indeed, spread by the Judge himself: he provided URLs to files stored on that site in emails to David Lat and in the piece he authored for the California Recorder in which he excoriated Mr. Sanai, the disgruntled litigant who uncovered the pornographic files.
Accordingly, I find the defenses offered by Volokh, Lessig & AK's wife to be thoroughly unconvincing. So many incorrect and false assertions deprives them of any credibility on the manner -- they all seem either not to know or to be willfully distorting the basic, clear, and undeniable facts in this situation.
As the blog “Overlawyered” notes:
Kozinski “whistle blower” (or stalker, depending on your point of view) Cyrus Sanai:
1. Was found by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to have “Sanai “intentionally altered court documents” to mislead the court about required service of legal documents.”
The blawg adds: “Speaking of misplaced legal discipline, one wonders why Kozinski is facing investigation while Cyrus Sanai has avoided legal discipline from the bar.”
LINK TO HIGHLIGHTED ORDER (PDF):
http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/5/16/1914169/sanai-v-saltz.pdf
2. In a 2005 order from the Western District of Washington, Judge Zily wrote regarding Sanai’s machinations: “Plaintiffs’ conduct in this litigation has been an indescribable abuse of the legal process, unlike anything this Judge has experienced in more than 17 years on the bench and 26 years in private practice: outrageous, disrespectful, and in bad faith. Plaintiffs have employed the most abusive and obstructive litigation tactics this Court has ever encountered, all of which are directed at events and persons surrounding the divorce of Sassan and Viveca Sanai, including parties, lawyers, and even judges. Plaintiffs have filed scores of frivolous pleadings, forcing baseless and expensive litigation. The docket in this case approaches 700 filings, a testament to Plaintiffs’ dogged pursuit of a divorce long past.”
LINK TO ORDER:
http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/5/16/1914169/zilly-order-sanctioning-sanai.pdf
Related Overlawyered posts:
http://overlawyered.com/2008/06/kozinski-recuses-himself-judge-zillys-sanctions-order-against-cyrus-sanai/
http://overlawyered.com/2008/06/latest-on-kozinski-and-cyrus-sanai/
4:30 PM = Cyrus Sanai
Lat is to Kozinski as that child rag doll is to the guy in the priest's costume on Koz's website.
Time to move on everyone. Seriously.
No, I am not Sanai (I am 4:30). I just cannot believe the conduct of people like Lessig in particular. His blog employed the plainly ridiculous metaphor of Sanai sneaking up to Kozinski's den, finding a window with the lock broken, and stealing his files. That is so absurd, and really should embarrass Lessig. I cannot believe that his understanding of the internet is that primitive.
people need to get a sense of humor. a guy running away from an aroused donkey = bestiality? give me a break.
I agree with 4:46. This was a big WHO CARES from day one.
I showed this "porn" to my my Mormon grandma and she wasn't even offended.
DC blog Wonkette described Kozinski’s stash as “sort of naughtiness you’d find in the dirty birthday cards section at Spencer Gifts.”
I could not agree more.
Finally, a super-bright appellate judge comes along who does not take himself too seriously, and is kicked in the teeth for it.
4:30/4:52:
When Ted Stevens is still comparing the Internet to a series of tubes, you have an expectation that the Koz would have set up his robots.txt file to maintain privacy from search engine robots? In 10 years, anyone claiming this sort of ignorance of the internet would be laughed at, and deservedly so. But until all the people that didn't grow up with computers and the internet have safely retired, it's simply not realistic to assume that level of understanding.
And the analogy is not quite as absurd as you would like to think, and can be stretched even further: sharing links to specific files on the system with others is like inviting them into his house for a social gathering. It was not an invitation to browse through everything that could be located there, just as one would not expect a house-guest to riffle through one's medicine cabinet or personal belongings.
Looks Like It Was Never About The Porn: Kozinski Accused By Lawyer Of Lying To Court
http://feministlawprofs.law.sc.edu/?p=3656
L.A. Times story was a hack job. While just short of the malice required for a defamation action, a retraction and an apology is definitely proper in this situation. Not a big Kozinski fan but this is an embarrassment from day one. Cyrus Sanai also seems to be blatantly abusing the legal process and the fact that he is still a practicing attorney shows that the attorney dicipline process in CA is broken.
If 4:30 were correct, and all of this material was easily available to the public, it presumably would have been exposed a long time ago. The fact is, most of us who grew up before the internet age have no idea what a "robots.txt" file is, and it is not at all obvious to us that 'plugging "alex.kozinski.com' into any search engine" would yield anything interesting. It took someone with an ax to grind and a strong motive to embarrass Kozinski to go on that sort of a fishing expedition.
And of course none of the stuff I have seen is remotely pornographic. Somewhat tasteless and juvenile, in my opinion, but far from pornographic, and certainly not the work of a depraved mind. A picture of someone running AWAY from a donkey is "bestiality"? Please! Even if Kozinski himself posted everything in that folder, which apparently is not the case, all it would prove is that he has a fairly quirky sense of humor. Good for him.
Lat, you commented in your personal blog a couple of weeks back that you did not believe in privacy at all in the internet age. Now you are saying we need to leave Kozinski alone?
I could care less about Kozinski, but you are much quicker to defend your conservative chums than anyone else.
5:07 PM, you're somewhat missing the point. I expect LESSIG to understand the facts and state them accurately. Lessig falsely stated that the Judge had configured the robots.txt file to keep the site hidden from search engines.
Also, I think we can both agree that Judge Kozinski is far, far more familiar with the internet than Sen Stevens, who is also far older than AK. And really, the metaphor business just needs to stop.
I continue to believe that Kozinski's conduct was quite, quite inappropriate for a federal judge, but I think I am most disappointed by the glaring distortions and incorrect statements that Profs. Lessig and Volokh used in defending AK. Defend him on the merits, fine. But don't falsely state that this site was not indexed by search engines or intimate that Sanai did some sort of "hacking" to find the porn when a simple Google search in fact uncovered the files.
5:36 PM -- I am correct. A simple google search did uncover this. It's just random chance and fortunate for the Judge that it didn't come to light earlier. And, as others have noted, this clown has been pitching the story for months, and the LAT just ran it because it dovetailed in a rather interesting way with Kozinski about to oversee a porn/obscenity trial.
But this is a very easy process, and I have used it before to find information on other sites. Kozinski frequently emailed URLs to people (including David Lat) for files on his website. If I had ever been really curious about what else was on AK's site (and I just wasn't), my first action would have been to plug the base host name (alex.kozinski.com) into google, and I knew that I would have been able to find out what all was on the site. It's really quite simple and elementary internet knowledge.
Oh, Lat. Yes, it's a non-issue now. Yes, Kozinski has done some very smart things by calling for the investigation and recusing himself. Yes, his wife's comments make him seem more sympathetic. Now will you please wipe the drool off of your chin??
Seriously, I do not get these people who idolize federal judges like they're Jebus Christ or something.
Enough of this "in defense of Kozinski" BS.
The guy is a judge. He has hardcore porn on a computer connected to his work as a judge. If one of his poor clerks had done it, there would be no one coming to his defense.
Some lawyers are just such self-selected kiss-asses, groveling their way to the top of the sorry pyramid that we call the legal field, that they can't bear to talk bad about someone who's higher in the hierarchy. You guys probably wouldn't talk about Kozinski if he had naked pictures of your mother on that server. Groveling is just in your blood.
My advice, sac the hell up, and try to keep it real for a change.
For the rest of us sensible folk, the only reprieve is that if Kozinski, as Chief Judge of the 9th Circuit and a well respected jurist, was ever on anyone's list as a SCOTUS candidate, he is no longer on that list. the last thing any politician wants, and this is particularly true of the Republican politicians who would be most likely to think of appointing Kozinski, is to be associated with those pictures, regardless of the context, and regardless of the excuses or justifications.
Bottom line: He made a stupid mistake. He's a judge, for god's sakes. His private life aside, he has certain civic duties. This will ultimately cost him, but he won't suffer more than he deserved. That's the end of it.
Ha, ha - look at all you conservative a-holes rushing to Kozinski's defense. : ) Hilarious...
4:30 / 5:43 - I don't doubt that it was easy to find if someone (like you) knew how to search for it. I don't think the know-how is as widespread as you think, but maybe that is just my old-guy view of things.
But I'm curious why, in your view, Kozinski maintained all this stuff in a folder that he knew the public could easily access? My suspicion is that he (like me) didn't understand the internet so well and didn't think anyone could find it. You seem to believe that he was fairly sophisticated about it, and I wonder what your theory is.
- 5:36
@5:56 PM:
I am defending Kozinski and I am a Democrat.
Fair is fair.
6:07/5:36
I don't know why Kozinski did that. Why did Governor Spitzer hire a prostitute? People do stupid things.
But for evidence that Kozinski does have some computer familiarity, read about his incident in 2001 with disabling the filters on the judiciary computers. See in particular this "letter from L. Ralph Mecham, former director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, which accuses Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski of having committed a criminal offense in 2001 against the federal judiciary's computer system that constituted a felony under federal law." (that's from How Appealing).
The link is at http://abajournal.com/files/mechamletter.pdf
It gets good starting at page 5. Kozinski is obviously a rather off-balance, strong-willed, stubborn, impulsive individual.
5:50--Calling the material hardcore is a pretty big stretch. Everything seems to have been pretty tame, with no sexual contact (well, except the auto-fellatio). Search around and check it out for yourself (not at work).
If Kozinski's porn really was that tame, why still suggest that we peruse it "not at work"?
I guess the question, from an ethical and possible legal point of view, should be whether identification by a "simple search engine" (whatever that is) can invade someone's privacy? I think AK had a reasonable expectation of privacy, and it's about time the laws applied to the Internet in this regard.
6:24 -- you are very confused.
A "reasonable expectation of privacy" is the standard used to judge invasions of privacy committed by the STATE in CRIMINAL law. That obviously has no application here.
Tort law is what you need to look to, and it does already apply to the internet. And you would need to alter your statement to "an OBJECTIVELY reasonable expectation of privacy." I can't just scream my lungs off in a restaurant and sue everyone who overheard me. Likewise, in 2008, it is objectively ridiculous to claim that anybody invaded your privacy when somebody visits your publicly available website, a website that was indexed by search engines, and that you have emailed around to numerous individuals, including blogger/journalists like David Lat.
Indeed, as this person has found, Kozinski even emailed the URL to Lat for a file WITHIN the "stuff" directory, i.e. the directory that contained all the porn.
http://sethf.com/infothought/blog/archives/001352.html
i couldn't care less about this controversy. But come on -- ever since it opened, the coin of the realm on this site has been pseudo-scandals much more trivial than this one. Is there any doubt that Lat would be murdering this story if it concerned ANY other article III judge?
come on -- hows about a little integrity and consistency with our tawdry gossip?
5:37 - again with the "I could care less"?
6:24, thanks for playing, but try again after you read the Lessig post up top. I was making a normative comment, as any fascist with half a brain (you appear to have only 1/4) would clearly see.
to all the imbeciles describing kozinski's "stash" as "hardcore porn" and alleging that he had beastiality and child porn in that directory: please quit while you're behind. anybody with half a brain and no axe to grind realizes that this was a smear job on kozinski by sinai and a reporter at the la times who tried his best to make the story far more sensationalistic than it was. kozinski's wife's detailed explanation pretty much seals the deal. if anything, kozinski should pursue the LA times and sinai to the full extent of the law. both of them have definitely damaged his reputation quite substantially. additionally, considering all of sinai's misdeeds in the past, in my unqualified opinion, i would think (hope) disbarment proceedings should be called for by the proper authorities.
the anti-Catholic shit is not going away assholes.
he needs to step down.
the pics including a young man SUCKIN HIS OWN C*CK.
women showing full frontal spread privates.
women showing open legged shots of their privates.
whether this is illegal or immoral, I COULD CARE LESS, but stop pretending normal people have this garbage on their computers.
His wife and former law clerk. Yah, obviously very neutral people.
I have no horse in this race, and I say, impeach Kozinski!
"the pics including a young man SUCKIN HIS OWN C*CK.
women showing full frontal spread privates.
women showing open legged shots of their privates.
whether this is illegal or immoral, I COULD CARE LESS, but stop pretending normal people have this garbage on their computers."
good point. Impeach kozinski!
4:`18, if I were Kozinski's anything, I'd be embarrassed right now.
wow, five consecutive posts by cyrus sanai apologists! what a coincidence!
Seriously 8:32, you *don't* have pictures of women spreading their privates on your computer? Prude?
5:37, aside from the "could care less" mishap, you are exactly right. Lat has been pontificating recently on how privacy is bunk and the world would be better if people didn't hide behind privacy. What changed? Perhaps his cozy friendship with Kozinski has colored his viewpoint on this one.
8:30
I'm Catholic & I thought the "anti-Catholic" stuff was hilarious. The church deserves to be criticized.
Or are you going to try to defend the cases of priest pedophilia that have come up? Maybe it was all some conspiracy...
I wonder if all the hypocrites who want to impeach Koz supported impeaching Bill Clinton because of his adultery (committed in the white house no less, not to mention perjury). Of course not. Clinton was a democrat. And, oh, clearly the president can't be held to the same standards as a circuit judge.
Such BS.
FWIW, neither should have taken as much crap as they have.
Does Kozinski worry that he will be outed as an Autoadmit poster?
A very compelling defense? What, that he didn't know it was there? Yeah, the "I didn't know" defense works so well in criminal contexts, why shouldn't it work here!?!
8:30 is Mel Gibson.
12:17 - Because this isn't a criminal context?
12:17, first, this isn't a criminal context (like 12:34 said).
Second, "I didn't know" is a defense to almost all crimes, except for strict liability crimes (of which there are very few non-regulatory ones). So "I didn't know the bag contained drugs at all" is a defense that works very well against serious drug possession charges with risk of imprisonment.
I can tell you're eagerly looking forward to starting law school in the fall and learning about things like "mens rea."
Seriously, I consider myself a very liberal person by american standards and have issue with many of judge K's opinions, but this is such a relatively minor issue that was blown out of proportion.
Did he have any pornographic material that would violate any laws? Don't think so. Did he have materials on his computer that like over half the country doesn't have or seen before? Didn't think so.
Was the fact that we found out about it in a relatively public manner unbecoming of a judge, definitely. Was the fact that this judge in the past has demonstrated higher technical ability than other judges show that he should have been more careful. Definitely.
Is this impeachable? What? Are you kidding? How is this a high crime or misdemeanor or anything even approaching that.
Seriously. Hatchet job by a 2 bit lawyer with an ax to grind. We all have skeletons or do things that if found out would hurt our reputation. Kozinsky was just careless and had a few enemies
obviously kozinski didn't do anything legally or ethically wrong. he had porn on his computer, which is legal.
the funny part of this whole thing is david lat posts "in defense of judge kozinski" - nice job not being biased. Lat posts a weirdo judge or attorney every day and never says "in defense of the fat judge who yelled at her clerks" or "in defense of the bitchy attorney" or "in defense of some weirdo douchebag." Obviously, lat is not unbiased - i've never seen him go so out of the way to defend somebody he shoudl have been making fun of.
I think it was best said above, this cost AK his chance to be on SCOTUS, as it should...
Fortunately, 5-10 idiots posting multiple comments at ATL do not a scandal make.
This is offensive on two levels: (1) It's no one's business if the Judge did look at porn. (2) People continue to dishonestly characterize the material in this case as porn when it's clearly not.
J. Kozinski may, for all I know, look at porn. As far as I'm concerned, that's wrong and is too bad. Fortunately, though, no one has shown evidence of his looking at porn, and it wouldn't be important to his job if they did.
Dickwads.
Joe Bingham
Dear 12:56,
I'm a criminal defense lawyer. "I didn't know" is only a defense to crimes with a "knowing" mens rea. And most crimes can be committed recklessly, and some even negligently. But more fundamentally--THE DEFENSE NEVER WORKS. So even if in theory, it's a defense, in reality, it is not.
Dear 12:56,
I'm a criminal defense lawyer. "I didn't know" is only a defense to crimes with a "knowing" mens rea. And most crimes can be committed recklessly, and some even negligently. But more fundamentally--THE DEFENSE NEVER WORKS. So even if in theory, it's a defense, in reality, it is not.
Dear 12:56,
I'm a criminal defense lawyer. "I didn't know" is only a defense to crimes with a "knowing" mens rea. And most crimes can be committed recklessly, and some even negligently. But more fundamentally--THE DEFENSE NEVER WORKS. So even if in theory, it's a defense, in reality, it is not.
As one commenter on Wonkette pointed out, even the image of the self-felicitating guy is FAKED with a dildo.
Come on, where is your sense of skepticism?
The depicted act is anatomically impossible.
1. This is a legal tabloid which is most popular for disseminating compensation info and making fun of lawyers who do silly things.
2. Lat has no obligation, duty or incentive to be unbiased or objective.
3. Lat does have an incentive not to be disingenuous.
4. Judge Kozinksi did something dumb.
5. Judge Kozinski should not be impeached.
6. Not making fun of Judge Kozinski is highly disingenuous.
This is a really sad commentary on the state of the media today. Had the Times' reporter, Scott Glover, done his homework, he would have realized that he was being diddled by a disgruntled litigant.
The night the story broke, I Googled "Kozinski Sanai" and discovered the back-and-forth bickerfest in the Recorder in 2005. That would have alerted anyone to the fact that there might be more at stake. Had Glover then accepted Kozinski's invitation there to run a Westlaw search on the CTA9-ALL database (I did), he would have found the thirty-odd cases in which Sanai was a party, all arising out of or related to his parents' divorce.
Indeed, had Glover done that search, he would have found the order from Judge Zilly (in my personal experience, a relatively even-tempered and fair jurist) in which (in the first paragraph, no less!) he calls Sanai's conduct "an indescribable abuse of the legal process, unlike anything this judge has encountered in 17 years on the bench and 26 years in private practice; outrageous, disrespectful and in bad faith . . . the most abusive and obstructive tactics this court has ever encountered."
Glover would also have found out about Sanai's illegal wiretapping, discovery abuse, and flagrant disobeying of court orders. All of this would have been found with the most basic Google search, which Glover didn't do.
Had he read Judge Zilly's opinion, he'd have read where the judge quoted himself at an earlier hearing stating, "If there is a lis pendens filed . . . without prior written approval of this Court, I will issue a bench warrant for the arrest of the person signing that lis pendens. Just to make sure you understand, this Court will issue a bench warrant, you'll be arrested." Glover would have then read how, 18 months later, "Cyrus Sanai caused to be filed a document titled 'Lis Pendens' with the Snohomish County Auditor." And the sanctions in excess of $100,000 that had been levied on Sanai and others in the state court divorce action. And the sanctions of over $27,000 to the date of the order in the action before Judge Zilly. And on, and on, and on. And on.
Had Glover pulled up the transcript of the hearing before Judge Thibodeau referenced in footnote 2 (the transcript was attached as an exhibit to a pleading available through the Western District of Washington's on-line PACER/ECF filing system), he would have found that judge's description of how Sanai's contemptuous conduct had so infuriated Judge Thibodeau that he felt no alternative but to recuse himself because he could no longer be impartial -- which was what Sanai had been trying to do all along when Judge Thibodeau's rulings didn't go Sanai's way.
Glover would also have seen Judge Zilly's reference (fn.1) to L.A. County Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Grimes' discussion of Sanai's litigation tactics (in which he falsified court filings to give the impression that a defendant had been served when it hadn't), in which Judge Grimes said that Sanai's "needless, baseless pleadings . . . and the unwarranted grief and expense it has spawned, are an outrage."
If you want a real head-shaker, look at Judge Zilly's opinion: http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/5/16/1914169/zilly-order-sanctioning-sanai.pdf
Any attorney that continues his course of conduct after being bench-slapped like this is out of touch with reality.
One judge pissed off is an occurrence. Two judges pissed off is a coincidence. Three judges pissed off -- the problem is Sanai.
Now, for those of us practicing in Western Washington over the past few years, that Sanai would be trying to trash the judge wouldn't have been any surprise. He's sued Superior Court judges and commissioners (in Washington, a sub-judicial officer appointed to deal with routine matters such as entering stipulated orders), and Court of Appeals judges. Everybody around the state and Federal courthouses knew he was a member of the foil-helmet brigade. But a half hour of research would have revealed the true story about Sanai to Glover.
Given the fact that Judge Kozinski was presiding over the obscenity trial may have made the story relevant, but it should have included a disclaimer that the source of the story was a disgruntled litigant who had had an ongoing dispute with the judge.
Makes me wonder, though, about those other news outlets that Sanai shopped this garbage to: the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, etc, who chose not to print it. Do you suppose those reporters actually did their job, looked into the source, and realized that he was a twisted little whack-job not worth the ink? I can only guess that Glover is new at his job.
I also have to question the wisdom of his editors. I suspect that Judge Kozinski will have to recuse himself from any appeal involving the L.A. Times in the future. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot: Trash the most First-Amendment-friendly judge in the Circuit. Smooth move.
My other reaction was sheer surprise when, the afternoon of the day the story came out, Sanai started holding press conferences patting himself on the back for rubbishing the judge. This guy has to be dumber than a box of hair. Let's see: I'm a client with a case that's important to me. There is at least a chance that it will end up in the circuit court of appeals. My lawyer proudly announces that he's behind a press leak that profoundly embarrasses the chief judge of that court. "Um, Cyrus? Would you mind getting my files together? I've decided to go with another firm, thanks."
I can't fault Kozinski for not understanding that anything he put on a server that was connected to the internet might be found, even though there were no links or other connections that would allow anyone to access it, even though it was mostly the type of stuff my idiot brother-in-law sends me every few days.
Something I missed at 9:05: Had Glover followed up Judge Grimes' decision, he would have found that it was reversed on a technicality by the appellate court in California. Unfortunately for Sanai, the judge who caught the remand, Thomas Green, ruled "It is Defendants’ position that [Sanai's] entire action had no legitimate purpose, and was filed merely for purposes of harassment, and in bad faith. That much is apparent. . . . This court specifically finds that this entire action has been prosecuted and maintained in bad faith and for the purpose of harassment. . . . Plaintiff’s prosecution of this matter has been malicious, as evidenced by, among other things, the altering of documents presented to the Clerk’s office and the recording of illegal judgment liens with malice, and then refusing to remove them despite being ordered by the Court to do so. . . . In the 35 years this Court has been actively engaged in litigation, 20 as an attorney and 15 as a Judge, this Court has never seen such an abuse of process as the prosecution by Plaintiff of this lawsuit."
Judge Green went on to sanction Sanai for $1,003,426.25, which is (guess what) on appeal.
Poor Sanai. In the priceless words of Ted Frank: "One has much sympathy for Cyrus Sanai, who has suffered the extraordinary misfortune of four trial judges in three different jurisdictions who are biased against him, and that does not include the appellate judges like the Chief Justice of the Washington State Supreme Court, Gerry Alexander; Washington State Court of Appeals judges Marlin Applewick, Anne Ellington and William Baker; or Judge Kozinski on the Ninth Circuit, all of whom Sanai has accused of bias. We wish that a just result is reached in Sanai’s various appeals, and pray that a just result is reached if a California legal disciplinary body ever decides to investigate what biased judges have been saying about Sanai."
9:05, again.
The most poignant thing about this whole sad story is summed up in the article about Kozinski by John Roemer in the April 2008 issue of California Lawyer. Near the end or the article, it narrates Kozinski giving an address at an intellectual property symposium at Santa Clara University of Law. The address was titled, "The Dead Past."
Quoting from the article:
When the time comes for his address, Kozinski reveals that "The Dead Past" is a 1956 Isaac Asimov short story about a chronoscope that lets users view each other's lives. "Every man his own Peeping Tom," Kozinski says, applying the lesson to the vast trove of personal information available in cyberspace.
Kozinski deplores that development, telling the Santa Clara law students of his struggle with Mecham and the court bureaucrats over the Internet filters. In a way, he says, we have encouraged government intrusions by lowering our expectation of privacy. We post our intimate lives on the Web, we publicly shout confidences into cell phones, and we smile at photos from space that show close-ups of our homes. "Happily, I hadn't been taking one of my famous nude sunbaths on the patio" when the satellite passed over his backyard, Kozinski says. He concludes with the sardonic final words of Asimov's story-which could also sum up his new visibility as chief judge: "Happy goldfish bowl."
How eerily prophetic.
Konzinski's "happy goldfish bowl":
http://www.uslaw.com/pop/what-stuff-was-on-judge-kozinskis-personal-website/?p=121
Oh 9:05 -- please, please post another essay. we're just dying to read more of your drivel.
There may be a MUCH BIGGER story underlying Hon. Judge Kozinski's computer faux pas that the LA times should be investigating -- namely, Judge Kozinski's disabling (breach) of the Federal Courts' National computer Security System. As I understand it, from reading the letter from former AOC Director Meacham, posted on HowAppealing, Judge Kozinski's disablement of the Federal Courts' Computer System directly affected the 9th, 8th, and 10th Circuits, and allowed potential hackers to hack into ANY FEDERAL COURT RECORDS IN THE UNITED STATES.
Given the juror e-mail undermining of the Scrushy trial in the 11th Circuit, together with "AnnTM" and her co-participants' admissions that "AnnTM," while clerk for an 11th Circuit Court of Appeal Judge, used Federal Court computers to pass extrinsic ex parte evidence on blogs and by e-mails to obstruct and influence the outcome of an autistic ADA civil rights plaintiff's cases in the 11th Circuit with, in part, confidential information obtained from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals about that plaintiff's cases previously heard by the 9th Circuit, ...
what we REALLY need is a BIG INVESTIGATION into whether Hon. Judge Kozinski's Federal Courts Computer System disablement breach has been exploited to undermine numerous cases throughout the Federal Courts system throughout the United States, and ...
whether Judge Kozinski's disablement (breach) of the Nation's Federal Judiciary Computer System was done not only to allow download of porn and MP3 files, but also Federal Court judges, employees, law clerks, and staff to blog on legal blogs to boost readership and advertising income (of those with an ownership interest in such blogs) from Federal Courts while at work on Federal computers.
Query, what the readership wants to know:
1. Did the USAO and other private civil defense attorneys learn about and exploit Judge Kozinski's Federal Courts System Computer breach to influence our Federal judges in an outcome determinative manner in Federal Court cases undetected by their opponents?
2. Did the Federal Courts Computer Security System that was breached lock out judges, employees, law clerks, and staff from even sending and receiving outside e-mails and going to outside blogs, thereby did the breach allow such extrinsic ex parte evidence passing outside the Federal Court record to go undetected in a Due Process sense from litigants in our Nation's Federal Courts in numerous cases?
3. Who was the computer genius smart enough to figure out how to disabled and breach an entire Nation's Federal Court's Computer System?
4. And did that computer genius have an ownership interest in a popular legal blog, clerk for Kozinski, and sit on a Presidential candidate's Federal Judge Selection Committee?
Both the LA Times, and Congress, need to open a BIG INVESTIGATION into this MUCH BIGGER apparent story of how the integrity and impartiality of our Nation's Federal Courts and our National Security may have been undermined.
Remember, to become a President, one must be a born American citizen.
To become a Federal Judge with power over a President, one does NOT need to be a born American citizen.
The integrity of our Federal Judiciary and its computer system is of paramount and vital National Security interest.
If a handful of cases can be compromised because no one in the Federal Judiciary is monitoring the travel destination and content of e-mails and blog posts coming from Federal Court computers used by judges, employees, law clerks, and staff POST-the Kozinski Federal Courts Computer System Security disablement (breach), then ...
WHAT OTHER CASES ARE BEING COMPROMISED, IN WHAT CIRCUITS ARE SUCH CASES LOCATED, AND OF WHAT IMPORTANCE TO OUR NATIONAL INTERESTS ARE THESE CASES?
What if the post 9-11 zeal we have seen of those like Yoo and the surveillance of almost every American has been covertly carried on through a Security breach of our Nation's Federal Courts Systems Computers?
What one of YOU would want to have a case pending in a Federal Court under such circumstances, whereby fairness, impartiality, and even your very "day in court" might have been compromised?
This is the BIG STORY -- we need a congressional and Special Prosecutor INVESTIGATION more far- reaching to look into MORE than merely Judge Kozinski's personal computer server.
There may be a MUCH BIGGER story underlying Hon. Judge Kozinski's computer faux pas that the LA times should be investigating -- namely, Judge Kozinski's disabling (breach) of the Federal Courts' National computer Security System. As I understand it, from reading the letter from former AOC Director Meacham, posted on HowAppealing, Judge Kozinski's disablement of the Federal Courts' Computer System directly affected the 9th, 8th, and 10th Circuits, and allowed potential hackers to hack into ANY FEDERAL COURT RECORDS IN THE UNITED STATES.
Given the juror e-mail undermining of the Scrushy trial in the 11th Circuit, together with "AnnTM" and her co-participants' admissions that "AnnTM," while clerk for an 11th Circuit Court of Appeal Judge, used Federal Court computers to pass extrinsic ex parte evidence on blogs and by e-mails to obstruct and influence the outcome of an autistic ADA civil rights plaintiff's cases in the 11th Circuit with, in part, confidential information obtained from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals about that plaintiff's cases previously heard by the 9th Circuit, ...
what we REALLY need is a BIG INVESTIGATION into whether Hon. Judge Kozinski's Federal Courts Computer System disablement breach has been exploited to undermine numerous cases throughout the Federal Courts system throughout the United States, and ...
whether Judge Kozinski's disablement (breach) of the Nation's Federal Judiciary Computer System was done not only to allow download of porn and MP3 files, but also Federal Court judges, employees, law clerks, and staff to blog on legal blogs to boost readership and advertising income (of those with an ownership interest in such blogs) from Federal Courts while at work on Federal computers.
Query, what the readership wants to know:
1. Did the USAO and other private civil defense attorneys learn about and exploit Judge Kozinski's Federal Courts System Computer breach to influence our Federal judges in an outcome determinative manner in Federal Court cases undetected by their opponents?
2. Did the Federal Courts Computer Security System that was breached lock out judges, employees, law clerks, and staff from even sending and receiving outside e-mails and going to outside blogs, thereby did the breach allow such extrinsic ex parte evidence passing outside the Federal Court record to go undetected in a Due Process sense from litigants in our Nation's Federal Courts in numerous cases?
3. Who was the computer genius smart enough to figure out how to disabled and breach an entire Nation's Federal Court's Computer System?
4. And did that computer genius have an ownership interest in a popular legal blog, clerk for Kozinski, and sit on a Presidential candidate's Federal Judge Selection Committee?
Both the LA Times, and Congress, need to open a BIG INVESTIGATION into this MUCH BIGGER apparent story of how the integrity and impartiality of our Nation's Federal Courts and our National Security may have been undermined.
Remember, to become a President, one must be a born American citizen.
To become a Federal Judge with power over a President, one does NOT need to be a born American citizen.
The integrity of our Federal Judiciary and its computer system is of paramount and vital National Security interest.
If a handful of cases can be compromised because no one in the Federal Judiciary is monitoring the travel destination and content of e-mails and blog posts coming from Federal Court computers used by judges, employees, law clerks, and staff POST-the Kozinski Federal Courts Computer System Security disablement (breach), then ...
WHAT OTHER CASES ARE BEING COMPROMISED, IN WHAT CIRCUITS ARE SUCH CASES LOCATED, AND OF WHAT IMPORTANCE TO OUR NATIONAL INTERESTS ARE THESE CASES?
What if the post 9-11 zeal we have seen of those like Yoo and the surveillance of almost every American has been covertly carried on through a Security breach of our Nation's Federal Courts Systems Computers?
What one of YOU would want to have a case pending in a Federal Court under such circumstances, whereby fairness, impartiality, and even your very "day in court" might have been compromised?
This is the BIG STORY -- we need a congressional and Special Prosecutor INVESTIGATION more far- reaching to look into MORE than merely Judge Kozinski's personal computer server.
There may be a MUCH BIGGER story underlying Hon. Judge Kozinski's computer faux pas that the LA times should be investigating -- namely, Judge Kozinski's disabling (breach) of the Federal Courts' National computer Security System. As I understand it, from reading the letter from former AOC Director Meacham, posted on HowAppealing, Judge Kozinski's disablement of the Federal Courts' Computer System directly affected the 9th, 8th, and 10th Circuits, and allowed potential hackers to hack into ANY FEDERAL COURT RECORDS IN THE UNITED STATES.
Given the juror e-mail undermining of the Scrushy trial in the 11th Circuit, together with "AnnTM" and her co-participants' admissions that "AnnTM," while clerk for an 11th Circuit Court of Appeal Judge, used Federal Court computers to pass extrinsic ex parte evidence on blogs and by e-mails to obstruct and influence the outcome of an autistic ADA civil rights plaintiff's cases in the 11th Circuit with, in part, confidential information obtained from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals about that plaintiff's cases previously heard by the 9th Circuit, ...
what we REALLY need is a BIG INVESTIGATION into whether Hon. Judge Kozinski's Federal Courts Computer System disablement breach has been exploited to undermine numerous cases throughout the Federal Courts system throughout the United States, and ...
whether Judge Kozinski's disablement (breach) of the Nation's Federal Judiciary Computer System was done not only to allow download of porn and MP3 files, but also Federal Court judges, employees, law clerks, and staff to blog on legal blogs to boost readership and advertising income (of those with an ownership interest in such blogs) from Federal Courts while at work on Federal computers.
Query, what the readership wants to know:
1. Did the USAO and other private civil defense attorneys learn about and exploit Judge Kozinski's Federal Courts System Computer breach to influence our Federal judges in an outcome determinative manner in Federal Court cases undetected by their opponents?
2. Did the Federal Courts Computer Security System that was breached lock out judges, employees, law clerks, and staff from even sending and receiving outside e-mails and going to outside blogs, thereby did the breach allow such extrinsic ex parte evidence passing outside the Federal Court record to go undetected in a Due Process sense from litigants in our Nation's Federal Courts in numerous cases?
3. Who was the computer genius smart enough to figure out how to disabled and breach an entire Nation's Federal Court's Computer System?
4. And did that computer genius have an ownership interest in a popular legal blog, clerk for Kozinski, and sit on a Presidential candidate's Federal Judge Selection Committee?
Both the LA Times, and Congress, need to open a BIG INVESTIGATION into this MUCH BIGGER apparent story of how the integrity and impartiality of our Nation's Federal Courts and our National Security may have been undermined.
Remember, to become a President, one must be a born American citizen.
To become a Federal Judge with power over a President, one does NOT need to be a born American citizen.
The integrity of our Federal Judiciary and its computer system is of paramount and vital National Security interest.
If a handful of cases can be compromised because no one in the Federal Judiciary is monitoring the travel destination and content of e-mails and blog posts coming from Federal Court computers used by judges, employees, law clerks, and staff POST-the Kozinski Federal Courts Computer System Security disablement (breach), then ...
WHAT OTHER CASES ARE BEING COMPROMISED, IN WHAT CIRCUITS ARE SUCH CASES LOCATED, AND OF WHAT IMPORTANCE TO OUR NATIONAL INTERESTS ARE THESE CASES?
What if the post 9-11 zeal we have seen of those like Yoo and the surveillance of almost every American has been covertly carried on through a Security breach of our Nation's Federal Courts Systems Computers?
What one of YOU would want to have a case pending in a Federal Court under such circumstances, whereby fairness, impartiality, and even your very "day in court" might have been compromised?
This is the BIG STORY -- we need a congressional and Special Prosecutor INVESTIGATION more far- reaching to look into MORE than merely Judge Kozinski's personal computer server.
On the BLAWG over- lawyered--DOT Com, it pimps for the hate spewed out by the 9th Circuit, it gives a citation to U S ex rel Fine v Chevron, and a tab. I looked at it, and it had Stephen Trott going on in a rabid frenzy of hate against some Americans, and Kozinski joining in that gang bang.
Overlawyered sems to be some pimp site for the smut industry, run by some L A lawyer, associated with the GOP AEI, and he fused his political leanings with his anit family values, just more hypocracy from the L A circle jerks, and he seems like he is intimate with the judges " immature humor", like the photos of
child sex.
The smut industry is the biggest biz on the I-Net, and the smut promoters at Over-Lawyer DOT com are pimping hard for the wacko so called judge.
More Bush GOP values, if any can call them values