Federal Judge On Obscenity Case Posted Porn Images On His Web Server
from the is-that-good-or-bad? dept
A lot of attention is suddenly getting turned on judge Alex Kozinski, the 9th Circuit chief judge, who (while in the middle of a trial about obscenity) was discovered to have posted pornographic images to his web server in a way in which they were accessible to the public. He didn't post them to a specific page or anything. It's just that he put them in an unprotected directory, and if you knew where to look, you could find them. Basically, it looks like he was just using the directory for personal storage, not realizing that it was publicly accessible, though, at one point he appears to claim he uploaded the images by accident. Some of the images were... extreme. Judge Kozinski described them as "funny" and "I think it's odd and interesting. It's part of life."Some are saying that he should recuse himself from the obscenity trial, noting that he's no longer objective. However, considering that obscenity is supposed to be based on local standards, that doesn't seem right. If even the judge finds those types of images "funny" or "interesting" and "a part of life," then perhaps that's making it pretty clear that they're not obscene. Saying he needs to recuse himself seems to be presupposing that the images are obscene, which doesn't seem quite right. Rather than being used as a way to tar the judge, doesn't this just raise questions about obscenity laws in the first place?
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Filed Under: alex kozinski, judges, obscenity
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Mike, you're exactly right.
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Re: Mike, you're exactly right.
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Re: Re: Mike, you're exactly right.
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Mike, you're exactly wrong
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Re: Mike, you're exactly wrong
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Re: Mike, you're exactly wrong
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Second, it would be nice to have a judge that's smart enough to avoid being caught, and who can tell the difference between "public" and "private" online services.
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By that logic, if he doesn't find porn interesting, he's biased the other way.
So I guess you'd need to find a judge who was unresponsive to porn?
Good luck with that.
I'm reasonably sure that our judges are supposed to guide jurors in jury cases, and make reasonable fair decisions based on the law, legal precedents, and the facts of the case... Not personal feelings about the subject matter. If he can't do that, he should be dismissed as a judge altogether. If he can do that, he should be able to stay on the case, regardless of his feelings on the subject matter.
If we want judges who are personally unbiased, we would have to have judges who were unresponsive to child abuse, murder, sex crimes, etc. I don't want to even know anyone who's unresponsive to those things, much less employ them as a judge...
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Anyway, all judges have personal biases and opinions about lots of things just like most other people. Impartiality does not rule those out completely it is a safeguard and assurance that they are impartial with respect to the case in front of them. Not that they're unbiased.
One of the best ways to assure that is that the person involved is aware of his/her bias.
Bias tends to become an issue only when you (or anyone else) disagrees with that bias.
If we disqualify everyone who is tech ignorant from holding judicial office the the perhaps we should demand the same from other players in the legal system from barristers to jurors.
ttfn
John
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That's what this whole case is about. Where's the line between "illegal" and "fetish" basically.
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Asking him to recuse himself from an obscenity case because he hosted porn is like asking a judge to do the same for an excessive speeding case because he owns a Viper. If it's not illegal he should be allowed to do as he pleases as long as he remains unbiased in the court room.
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I think you should rephrase that Anonymous Coward. It is contradictory by definition. Well, mostly it is.
By what definition of "fetish" does the law come in?
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Hopefully he will judge based on the law and the merits not his personal views.
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Re: Norm
--Glenn
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Recuse them all...
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You're both right and wrong (waffles for breakfast, anyone?)...
What's relevant in this case is that an obscenity trial is based on subjective community standards as to what "obscene" is. Since the judge is obviously not of the opinion that all porn is obscene, he represents the mainstream in that regard. Unfortunately, the subjective nature of deciding whether the judge's content is obscene or not will now become a distraction, and has the potential to influence the jurors if they become aware of the news.
Since his main responsibility is to ensure a fair trial, he should recuse himself, not because it's wrong to own porn, but to remove any doubt or appeal that the jury was influenced by thinking about this mid-trial revelation instead of the case itself.
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Re: You're both right and wrong (waffles for breakfast, anyone?)...
In other words, laws should be written in such a way as to eliminate personal biases. If they aren't written that way, the laws should be reconsidered (reworked or rescinded).
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Re: You're both right and wrong (waffles for breakfast, anyone?)...
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Not the point!
Can someone with that level of technical incompetence really make informed findings and rulings on the fragile nuances of internet publication law?
Whether his 'thought to be private' activities were indecent or not is far more subjective and speculative. He's simply not technically qualified.
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Re: Not the point!
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Re: Re: Not the point!
The case is not about obscenity. The case is about the law, and obscenity law is about the first amendment. Obscenity case law deals with loads of minutia involving format, method of distribution, number of violations and degree of criminality.
Any physical videos produced might be cut and dry decisions, but any stuff on his hard drive, or on websites, email attachments, etc. directly impacts decisions on how many counts and exactly what types of violations occurred.
Additionally, anything from this case that goes to publication could be used in further cases that don't involve obscenity at all but if they share a parallel issue, then the case can be cited and the citation could ultimately be decisive in a non-obscenity case.
If Time Warner et. al actually are successful in blocking Usenet on their networks to protect against obscenity, any statement he would have made that referenced format or method of distribution would have had direct impact on non-obscenity related topics.
This judge doesn't even know how to click on his "View my profile" link. How is he going to be able to gauge the broader impact of the statements in his findings or rulings on other free speech cases?
So, yes his complete demonstration of technical savior fail matters here.
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Link?
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Shame On The Judge!
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