9th Circuit, Alex Kozinski, Federal Judges, Federalist Society, Law Schools, Videos

Messing With Chief Judge Kozinski

Chief Judge Kozinski identifies his favorite opinion, explains why he reads Playboy, offers tips for getting ahead in the legal profession, and warns you not to bring mom to your oral argument.

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Here’s the video of Chief Judge Kozinski’s event with the Yale Federalist Society, in which he speaks with Jon Fougner, a member of the YLS class of 2014, about a variety of subjects that are near and dear to the hearts of Fed Soc members. From the Vimeo blurb:

Judge Kozinski and Jon Fougner ’14 discuss the future of freedom and the Judge’s public service protecting our liberties, ranging from Fourth Amendment search and seizure, to gay marriage, to free markets, to the independence of the federal judiciary.

Here are some highlights, courtesy of Fougner (links supplied by me):

5:40: Judge K on how his definition of “Iron Curtain” evolved as he grew up.
7:26: Judge K says he’s a star of the new movie Atlas Shrugged.
17:50: Amidst his remarks on computer monitoring within the federal judiciary network, Judge K explains why he’s opposed to the monitoring.
18:50 Judge K explains why he construed the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act narrowly in U.S. v. Nosal, going on to explain (21:54) that under the government’s theory, even Judge K would be a federal criminal.
24:16: Judge K on the tension between the immunity doctrine and free speech. “Qualified immunity is like drinking skim milk: it’s not very satisfying” (because the official gets off even though he committed an abuse).
27:44: Reflecting on Mattel, Judge K re-advises counsel for IP holders to chill.
33:58: Judge K on Judge Posner: style and substance.
36:45: Judge K on why his Golinski administrative adjudication is about marriage more than gay rights
42:05: Judge K on why the “state of nature” is not the theoretical underpinning of the right to liberty and why, more generally, natural rights are a morass.
46:20: Judge K on why, as textualist, if he were a state supreme court judge, he would roll back doctrines like contract unconscionability because they increase transaction costs, hurting the very people they are intended to help.
49:13: Judge K banters about “Woman Detained for Riding Manatee” and other Drudge Report headlines.
53:43: Judge K notes that, although most cops behave well, power corrupts, so recording the acts of public officials is salubrious.
56:18: Judge K on why, unlike most libertarians, he supports IP.
57:58: Judge K on how U.S. v. Jones reassured him that place-specific privacy (law of trespass) still exists and (59:22) how Alito’s concurrence heartened him.
1:07:20: Judge K gives step-to-step instructions on how to find and genuflect to his portrait in the Court of Federal Claims, of which we was the first Chief Judge (and goes on to explain why Article I judges, adjudicating public rights, don’t have life tenure). Judge K recommends COFC as an excellent place to work and see high-stakes, complex cases and “terrific” DOJ litigators.
1:11:00: Judge K tells the story of being statutorily overturned before he even had issued his opinion!

As you can tell from these highlights, it’s a fairly substantive conversation. Check it out:

Messing with Kozinski [Yale Law School via Vimeo]
Judge Kozinski and Jon Fougner ’14 [Yale Law School via Vimeo]

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