9th Circuit Chief Judge, Reagan appointee, presiding at obscenity trial: Obscenity on his own site?

[DeepModem Mom]

LAT: 9th Circuit's chief judge posted sexually explicit matter on his website
Alex Kozinski, who is presiding over an obscenity trial in L.A., acknowledges that he had posted sexually explicit photos and videos. He says he didn't think the public could access the site.
By Scott Glover, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
June 11, 2008

One of the highest-ranking federal judges in the United States, who is currently presiding over an obscenity trial in Los Angeles, has maintained his own 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."

Kozinski, 57, said that he thought the site was for his private storage and that he was not aware the images could be seen by the public, although he also said he had shared some material on the site with friends. After the interview Tuesday evening, he blocked public access to the site.

Asked whether the contents of his site should force him to step aside from the pending obscenity trial, Kozinski declined to comment....

***

Kozinski, who was named chief judge of the 9th Circuit last year, is considered a judicial conservative on most issues. He was appointed to the federal bench by then-President Ronald Reagan in 1985. He has a national reputation for a brilliant legal mind and has developed a reputation as a champion of the First Amendment right to freedom of speech and expression. Several year ago, for example, after learning that appeals court administrators had placed filters on computers that denied access to pornography and other materials, Kozinski led a successful effort to have the filters removed....

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-kozinski12-2008jun12,0,6220192.story

[NV Whino]

1. Oy vey!

:rofl: "Kozinski, 57, said that he thought the site was for his private storage and that he was not aware the images could be seen by the public, although he also said he had shared some material on the site with friends."

[MrCoffee]

2. This is going to be a VERY interesting trial

The subject matter on trial includes bestiality, scat and watersports fetishes. The presiding judge is outstanding on the First Amendment. Over half of the potential jurors have been released because of their inability to review the evidence (really really "disgusting" porn, and that's from the defense attorney).


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25084826/

[DeepModem Mom]

3. This article is right now both Most Viewed AND Most E-mailed on the LAT website. nt