Judge Kozinski Not Just a Tireless Defender of the First Amendment

He's also a user.

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."

I see absolutely nothing problematic about this. Now I don't know much about law, but nothing described in Kozinski's collection seems particularly obscene. Not to my taste, but nothing's more kaleidoscopic than our sexual fantasies, so I don't judge. But Kozinski's offered to recuse himself, at the least, which seems fair enough. I don't know how effective it is--everyone watches porn, or wishes they were--you're wishing you were right now. Kozinski's just the guy who got caught.

I see no hypocrisy here, given that the good judge is noted for his social liberalism. This isn't someone known for his tough stance on prostitution being caught with a callgirl.

Nor do I see anything shameful in his having prurient interests. To be sure, many conservatives aren't going to be his biggest fans after this--but that's a problem with conservatism.

While this is all to be taken with much salt, as I'm no expert on Kozinski, nor the First Amendment. Still, how can you not be charmed by such rare honesty?

"Is it prurient? I don't know what to tell you," [Kozinski] said. "I think it's odd and interesting. It's part of life."

The LA Times story is here.