Searching for Alex Kozinski

The controversial 9th Circuit judge on free speech, privacy, and why he didn't mind the Kelo decision

Shikha Dalmia from the July 2006 issue

(Page 2 of 79)

p class="Flargetext c3"> span class="c1">Kozinski, 55, built his judicial reputation on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, where he has spent the last two decades doing daily battle with judges of both the left and the right. “I disagree with the liberals on the bench half of the time,” he chuckles, “and the conservatives the other half.” The 9th Circuit is widely called the 9th Circus because of its penchant for digging new legal ground even in the face of clear guiding precedent, a habit that makes it one of the most reversed courts in the country. Kozinski’s incorrigible impishness—he amuses himself in restaurants by blowing the cover off straws as far as he can—could easily qualify him as the court’s ringleader. But he takes his job of applying the law very seriously. o:p> /o:p> /span> /p> p class="Flargetext c3"> span class="c1"> o:p> /o:p> /span> /p> p class="Flargetext c3"> span class="c1">Kozinski, now married with three children, was a late intellectual bloomer who, before graduating at the top of his law class at UCLA