Latest Issue for 9th Circuit Chief Judge: E-Mailed 'Dirty Jokes'
Already under fire for his involvement in a personal web page containing sexually explicit material that formerly was available to those who knew how to search for it on the Internet, the chief judge of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is now facing renewed criticism over the off-color jokes he regularly e-mailed for years from his personal computer, at home, prior to the uproar over the web page.
The Easy Rider Gag List circulated by Judge Alex Kozinski until approximately early June contained some jokes that “used language that defies quotation in a general circulation newspaper,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
The linked newspaper article gives several examples, however, of other jokes reportedly sent by Kozinski over a period of more than a decade to a distribution list that included, at various times, federal and state judges, prominent lawyers, civil rights leaders and nationally known journalists. The examples include jokes that focused both on ethnicity and, apparently, sexual behavior. Kozinski tells the Times, through his lawyer, that he stopped circulating them six months ago.
Among those included in the distribution list was Michael Kinsley, a Time magazine columnist who formerly worked as editorial page editor at the Los Angeles newspaper. “There were a lot of vulgar jokes, very dirty jokes,” he tells the Times. “I was astonished that a judge was doing this.”
Although the distribution list reportedly contained a prominent disclaimer warning recipients about the nature of the material, law professor Arthur Hellman of the University of Pittsburgh tells the Times that sending such jokes could, in his opinion, violate an ethical rule that bars judges from social activities that detract from the dignity of their office.
Earlier ABAJournal.com coverage:
Ex-Court Exec Files Ethics Complaint Claiming Kozinski Disabled Anti-Porn Software
Prosecutors Seek Recusal of Entire 9th Circuit in Porn Appeal
Number of Ethics Probes of Federal Judges Appears Unprecedented
