The Chief Judge of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court is under scrutiny for maintaining a personal website with graphic sexual images while at the same time presiding over a closely-watched obscenity trial.
Judge Alex Kozinski, as GamePolitics has reported in the past, is a video game fan who has authored game reviews for the Wall Street Journal.
According to this morning's Los Angeles Times:
Kozinski acknowledged posting sexual content on his website. Among the images on the site were 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. He defended some of the adult content as "funny" but conceded that other postings were inappropriate.
The obscenity trial over which Kozinski was presiding included charges related to images of bestiality. At the request of the prosecutor, Kozinski issued a 48-hour stay of the proceedings.
There's an additional video game connection, of sorts. California's appeal of a lower court ruling which found the state's 2005 video game law unconstitutional is currently before the 9th Circuit. There's no reason to expect that Judge Kozinski's problems would impact the Court's review of the video game law, however.
Comments
Re: Federal Judge Who Penned Video Game Reviews Caught Up in
Except for the part where he didn't do anything illegal? Then again, what is meant by a guy "cavorting" with an aroused farm animal? >_>
Re: Federal Judge Who Penned Video Game Reviews Caught Up in
Dunno, but it brings to my mind some show on the cattle industry I saw a while back. In particular the part where they were getting sperm from a bull for breeding.
So really it could be pretty much anything, and just be taken out of context, or it could be something actually disgusting.
Re: Federal Judge Who Penned Video Game Reviews Caught Up in
While *he* technically may not have done something illegal, I do believe that bestiality is illegal. (Even if it wasn't, come on, that's just plain NASTY.)
Re: Federal Judge Who Penned Video Game Reviews Caught Up in
Yes, it is illegal... however, he isn't being accused of betiality, or even having pictures of beastiality. He had pictures of women painted up, and the state of the animal has nothing to do with it's legality, it's what the person is doing with the animal. Cavorting is such a mild term that I'm sure it wouldn't have been used if there was anything illegal about it.
In short, Judges are human too and may like to look at porn.
Everyone is acting like this is a scandal, but in truth he hasn't broken any laws. What he may have done is something along the lines of putting the position of Judge in a unfavorable light or something similar dealing with having people make fun of the position. He might have disciplinary procedings, he might be suspended, but he won't be imprisoned or have his computer searched.