Kozinski Joins the Establishment as Chief Judge
Only a few federal appeals court judges develop such a following that court watchers read their opinions just for an unusual turn of phrase or interesting observation.
Judge Alex Kozinski, described both as a conservative and a libertarian, is one of them. Known for his unusual pastimes and irreverent nature, he will become chief judge of the liberal 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in December, the National Law Journal reports in a profile.
Kozinski once suggested in an opinion that “the parties should chill” and inserted the names of more than 200 movies in an antitrust opinion involving a movie theater, the legal newspaper reports.
A Web site that calls itself The Unofficial Judge Alex Kozinski Site posts some of his more memorable opinions. One of them is Kozinski’s dissent from a denial of an en banc rehearing in the Second Amendment case Silveira v. Lockyer. “It is wrong to use some constitutional provisions as springboards for major social change while treating others like senile relatives to be cooped up in a nursing home until they quit annoying us,” he wrote.
In a 2004 profile, Legal Affairs calls Kozinski the most controversial judge on the most controversial court. “There’s … nothing conservative about Kozinski in the stuffed-shirt sense; he’s a troublemaker,” it reads. “The judge is zany and bawdy, a high-pitched giggler and an anything-goes storyteller. Kozinski takes his law clerks paintballing and snowboarding.”
The NLJ asked Kozinski if he will be able to keep his maverick instincts in check when he takes on the new job. “I guess I’ll have to see,” he said. “I am very comfortable on the sidelines. It is hard to be a renegade when you’re in the establishment. I’m going to have to work that one out.”
