Maladroit Public Servant of the Week #2

Let's hear it for Judge Alex Kozinski! From the L.A. Times:

"One of the highest-ranking federal judges in the United States, who is currently presiding over an obscenity trial in Los Angeles, has maintained a 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"...

"Gillers, who has known Kozinski for years and called him "a treasure of the federal judiciary," said he took the judge at his word that he did not know the site was publicly available. But he said Kozinski was "seriously negligent" in allowing it to be discovered."

Wow. Where to begin with this upstanding gentleman? Let's point out first that his buddy "Gillers" isn't so concerned that a federal judge finds pictures literally dehumanizing women and depicting aroused animals to be funny. Instead, he is upset with Judge Kozinski because he got caught. Secondly, the hand wringing is likewise unconcerned with the good Judge's sexual proclivities, but the masses ought to be worried about a potential conflict of interest. I don't see the problem. Porn ought to be judged by its own aficionados, right? Maybe after the artist is not convicted on obscenity charges, he and the Judge can get together and brainstorm a new adult series, "Welcome to my Chamber".