More (Yes, More) Allegations Against Judge Kozinski. Reading Them Will Make You Feel Gross.

The prominent judge also lawyers up.

(Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Have you been keeping track of the sheer number of allegations against Ninth Circuit judge Alex Kozinski? The Washington Post has, and with the new allegations included in their most recent follow-up on the judge’s alleged serial sexual harassment, that number is now up to 15.

Since the story first broke a week ago, there’s been a steady stream of women coming forward to tell their stories of how Kozinski treats women in a professional context (likely spurred on by the judge’s own words, which seemed to dare other women to speak against him). While it is unclear at this point what, if anything, will happen to Kozinski and his lifetime appointment, the Ninth Circuit has opened an inquiry into his behavior. Plus, as Above the Law first reported, three of Kozinski’s clerks abruptly quit yesterday, leaving the judge short on staff.

Though his first attempt at an explanation for his behavior was an awful non-apology, the Washington Post reports Kozinski has made another go at it, but this time it’s been filtered through a lawyer, Susan Estrich of Quinn Emanuel (Estrich has a reputation as a feminist legal scholar, but also represented Roger Ailes in his defense against sexual harassment claims):

In a statement read by one of his lawyers, Susan Estrich of the firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart and Sullivan, Kozinski said: “Many of the things that are being said about me are simply not true, but I deeply regret that my unusual sense of humor caused offense or made anyone uncomfortable. I have always treated my male and female law clerks the same.”

And that’s really been the nugget at the core of any defense of Kozinski. He was “only” joking, or that he should get a pass or a mere slap on the wrist because his behavior didn’t cross the line into the physical. But in the new WaPo article more women are coming forward with allegations that seem to cross that line and are deeply unsettling.

Take the story of Christine O.C. Miller, who is now a retired U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge. She says that in 1986 she attended a professional event with Kozinski and shared a car ride home at the end of the evening. During that ride Miller alleges Kozinski asked her to stop at a hotel and have sex. When she rejected his advance, she alleges things turned physical:

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“I told him, no, I wasn’t interested and didn’t want to be involved in anything like that,” she said. Kozinski, she said, persisted.

“He said if you won’t sleep with me, I want to touch you, and then he reached over, and — this was the most antiseptic — he grabbed each of my breasts and squeezed them,” Miller said. She said she stared straight ahead, and he soon dropped her off at her home.

In another story the Post uncovered, Kozinski allegedly took advantage of a moment alone with a woman to make an unwelcome advance:

One lawyer said that Kozinski approached her when she was alone in a room at a legal community function in downtown Los Angeles in 2008 and planted a kiss on her lips. The woman was then in her 50s and said she was hardly even an acquaintance of Kozinski.

“It was really disgusting,” the woman said. “It would have been disgusting if I were young, but it was particularly gross and unwelcome.”

The woman, who wishes to stay anonymous, says she felt unable to do anything about the incident because of Kozinski’s position in the legal community.

UC Irvine law professor Leah Litman alleges that at a dinner with Kozinski, he made inappropriate comments — which were confirmed by fellow professor Rick Hasen, who was also at the dinner — and then pinched her thigh and side:

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Leah Litman, 33, a law professor at the University of California at Irvine, said she, similarly, encountered Kozinski when they appeared together on a panel at her school in July to discuss Supreme Court issues. Litman said that at a dinner at the Italian restaurant Canaletto the night before their panel, Kozinski talked of having just had sex and pinched her side and her leg, just above the knee, with his thumb and middle finger. She said he also tried to feed her with a utensil.

“I felt uncomfortable and just wanted to leave,” Litman said.

And it’s not just seasoned professionals leveling accusations against Kozinski. WaPo also has a story from a woman in law school at the time of the incident. The woman alleges during a Montana Law School event that Kozinski used her name tag as an excuse to “very deliberately” touch her breast:

A 33-year-old woman said that when she was a student at the University of Montana Law School in 2016, Kozinski came to speak at an event. She said she encountered Kozinski at a reception afterward, and Kozinski — in an apparent attempt to see her name tag, which was partially obscured by her lapel — “very deliberately put his finger on the other side of my breast, and moved it, with some pressure” toward the center.

“It was shocking to me,” the woman said, adding: “I thought it was wrong. I thought it was inappropriate, and it felt extremely entitled.”

These most recent allegations take place over course of thirty years. Perhaps with the spotlight shining on Judge Kozinski’s alleged behavior something will finally change.


headshotKathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).