Back to School with Professor (and Federal Appeals Judge) Alex Kozinski
By Ben Hallman
January 26, 2009
What do you get when you pair Alex Kozinski, the very--ahem--lively chief judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, with David Lat, whose Above the Law blog is known for delving into the personal side of the legal profession? The answer, we hoped, as we headed up to Columbia Law School on Thursday for a panel featuring the two ("Judge in Full: Personality and Jurisprudence"), would be a Page Six-worthy tete-a-tete about Kozinski’s alleged taste for the racy stuff. (You remember: The judge was forced to recuse himself from a pornography case last year after lewd photos and videos were discovered on a Kozinski family website).No such luck. Lat never broached the subject of porn. But the discussion wasn’t a complete letdown. Kozinski, who writes frequently about privacy issues, is a compelling speaker and Lat kept the conversation moving. Here’s a quick summary of the notes we took, in between bites of free, extra-greasy pizza. (When in college, do as the collegians).
• Lat introduced Kozinski as the "Brangelina of the federal judiciary."
• The two spent a full five minutes discussing Kozinski's self-nomination (and eventual victory) in a Superhotties of the Federal Judiciary contest that Lat ran a few year back. (Among his qualifications, Kozinski once won a date on the Dating Game.)
• As to whether participation in such silliness is undignified, Kozinski said, "I want to demystify the federal judiciary. We are motivated by the same things as other people." (That seemed to us to be a perfect moment for Lat to segue into a question about the judge's porn stash, but he let it go.)
• Asked about the importance of judicial consistency, Kozinski quoted his father: "Only an idiot never changes his mind." (Which is a less-elegant paraphrase of Ralph Waldo Emerson's "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.")
• Kozinski said he doesn't like it when lawyers cite his previous opinions back at him during oral arguments. "I am in no better position to interpret my opinion than anyone else," he said. He finds the tactic "smarmy."
• An audience member asked Kozinski about an admonition he once wrote into a court order: "The parties are advised to chill." Kozinski said he uses this kind of phrases to communicate past the lawyers to the client. "They need to make a decision about which issues are worthy of litigation," the judge said.
