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69-460: Alex Kozinski ( / k ə ˈ z ɪ n s k i / ; born July 23, 1950) is a Romanian-American jurist and lawyer who was a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 1985 to 2017. He was a prominent and influential judge, and many of his law clerks went on to clerk for U.S. Supreme Court justices. Kozinski's judicial career ended in 2017 when he retired after over
138-416: A Black. I have a woman, two Jews and a cripple." After resigning from government, Watt became a lobbyist for builders seeking contracts with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In 1995, he was indicted on 18 counts of felony perjury and obstruction of justice for making false statements before a federal grand jury investigating influence peddling at HUD. The following year, he
207-404: A President's statements on the campaign trail. Kozinski was criticized by Stephen Reinhardt and Marsha Berzon in two separate concurring opinions – Reinhardt referred to Kozinski's opinion a "diatribe" and Berzon called it "a one-sided attack on a decision by a duly constituted panel of this court." The Supreme Court ultimately upheld the "travel ban" against similar challenges in
276-536: A daily occurrence. He also had an innate sense of when he'd gone too far. After he'd demonstrated that he had forgiven me for the misplaced comma or misspelled word that gave rise to his outburst, he would go up to me. "Heidi, honey," he would ask. "Do you still love me?" There was only one answer. To say "no" would be to invite the tempest a second time. "Yes, Judge," I would say. "Of course I still love you." He'd kiss my cheek, and I would kiss his. Former clerk Katherine Ku wrote that Kozinski expected to be able to approve
345-774: A dozen of his former female law clerks and legal staffers accused him of sexual harassment and abusive practices. Kozinski had previously faced an ethics hearing over inappropriate sexual material. Kozinski was born in July 1950 to a Romanian Jewish family in Bucharest , under the rule of the Socialist Republic of Romania . Both of his parents were Holocaust survivors. Kozinski's father, Moses spent four years in Transnistrian concentration camps where tens of thousands of Jews perished. His mother, Sabine, lived through
414-723: A friend and an endorser of President Reagan and a contributor to the Republican Party, would perform at the Independence Day celebration at the mall in 1983. During the ensuing controversy, Rob Grill , lead singer of The Grass Roots, stated that he felt "highly insulted" by Watt's remarks, which he termed "nothing but un-American." The Beach Boys stated that the Soviet Union , which had invited them to perform in Leningrad in 1978, "obviously ... did not feel
483-522: A given time—as a "hostile, demeaning and persistently sexualized environment." An image posted on the legal gossip blog Underneath their Robes shows a female law clerk with her arm draped around Kozinski's neck. Some former Kozinski clerks have observed that because Kozinski retired from the bench after the first 15 women accused him of misconduct, "additional targets of, or witnesses to, Kozinski's transgressions" will not be likely to speak publicly. His former clerk, Brett Kavanaugh , during his hearing before
552-542: A mining safety whistleblower so as to pass legal muster. When the incident came to light years later during confirmation hearings for Kozinski's Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals nomination, the scandal drew 43 Senate opposition votes and reportedly subsequently prevented Kozinski's planned promotion to the U.S. Supreme Court . Kozinski served as a trial judge of the United States Court of Claims in 1982, serving as Chief of Trial Division that year. Kozinski
621-509: A private residence. Kozinski initially refused to comment on disqualifying himself and then granted a 48-hour stay, when the prosecutor requested time to explore "a potential conflict of interest." On June 13, Kozinski petitioned an ethics panel to investigate his own conduct. He asked Chief Justice John Roberts to assign the inquiry to a panel of judges outside the Ninth Circuit's jurisdiction. Also, he said that his son, Yale, and his family or friends may have been responsible for posting some of
690-649: A protected title, for example in Norway . Thus the term can be applied to attorneys, judges and academics, provided that they hold a qualifying professional law degree. In Germany – the term "full jurist" is sometimes used informally to denote someone who has completed the two state examinations in law that qualify for practising law, to distinguish from someone who may have only the first state examination or some other form of legal qualification that does not qualify for practising law. Some notable historical jurists include: This job-, occupation-, or vocation-related article
759-502: A public interest law firm "dedicated to individual liberty, the right to own and use property, limited and ethical government and economic freedom". A number of attorneys who worked for Watt at the firm later became high-ranking officers of the federal government, including Ann Veneman and Gale Norton . In 1980, President-elect Reagan nominated Watt as his Secretary of the Interior . The United States Senate subsequently confirmed
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#1732783074298828-416: A publicly accessible website featuring sexually explicit photos and videos." Kozinski had collected a "vast" number of images sent to him via e-mail over many years and retained them on a personal web server in his home. Kozinski believed that only invited friends and family were able to view the image directory. Nonetheless, he called for an ethics investigation of himself, and was suspended from presiding over
897-438: A robot on a Wheel of Fortune –style set in a humorous advertisement. While the Ninth Circuit held in favor of White, Kozinski dissented: "All creators draw in part on the work of those who came before, referring to it, building on it, poking fun at it; we call this creativity, not piracy." An extended extract from the opinion is widely quoted: Overprotecting intellectual property is as harmful as underprotecting it. Creativity
966-531: A sexually aroused farm animal," which actually involves a man running away from a donkey, is available on YouTube , and is not, as is implied by the Times article, an example of bestiality . He also argued that the Kozinski family's right to privacy was violated when the disgruntled litigant exposed the private files, which were not intended for public viewing. Lessig compared the incident to breaking and entering
1035-525: A society, cannot stomach the splatter from an execution carried out by firing squad, then we shouldn't be carrying out executions at all." Wood's execution subsequently took 1 hour 57 min before he was pronounced dead. On March 17, 2017, Kozinski wrote a dissenting opinion when the Ninth Circuit denied en banc review after a three-judge panel blocked Trump's "travel ban." Joined by Jay Bybee , Consuelo Callahan , Carlos Bea , and Sandra Segal Ikuta , he argued that courts should not divine an illicit purpose from
1104-502: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . James G. Watt James Gaius Watt (January 31, 1938 – May 27, 2023) was an American lawyer, lobbyist, and civil servant who served as U.S. Secretary of the Interior in the Ronald Reagan administration from 1981 to 1983. He was described as "anti-environmentalist" and was one of Ronald Reagan 's most controversial cabinet appointments. His tenure as Secretary of
1173-465: Is impossible without a rich public domain. Nothing today, likely nothing since we tamed fire, is genuinely new: Culture, like science and technology, grows by accretion, each new creator building on the works of those who came before. Overprotection stifles the very creative forces it's supposed to nurture. Kozinski's dissent in White is also famous for his sarcastic remark that "for better or worse, we are
1242-402: Is to be distinguished from similar terms in other European languages, where it may be synonymous with legal professional , meaning anyone with a professional law degree that qualifies for admission to the legal profession, including such positions as judge or attorney. In Germany , Scandinavia and a number of other countries jurist denotes someone with a professional law degree, and it may be
1311-597: Is usually a specialist legal scholar , mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree ) and often a legal practitioner . In the United Kingdom the term "jurist" is mostly used for legal academics, while in the United States the term may also be applied to a judge. With reference to Roman law , a "jurist" (in English) is a jurisconsult ( iurisconsultus ). The English term jurist
1380-448: Is what makes this country truly great—that we can have a judiciary where the person who appoints you doesn't own you." He also took a stand against the charge that the Ninth Circuit is overly liberal : "I can say with some confidence that cries that the Ninth Circuit is so liberal are just simply misplaced." On November 30, 2007, he became the tenth Chief Judge of the Ninth Circuit. His term as chief judge ended on December 1, 2014, when he
1449-643: The Washington Post in December 2017. Public allegations of Kozinski's sexual misconduct toward female lawyers and law students include: Former clerks also describe abusive employment practices by Kozinski. For many years, Judge Kozinski's job announcement stated that "I'm looking for amazingly intelligent Supreme Court clerk wannabes eager to slave like dogs for an unreasonably demanding boss." Former law clerk Heidi Bond described how Kozinski forbade her from reading romance novels during her dinner break:
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#17327830742981518-732: The EPA at the time. Environmental groups accused Watt of reducing funding for environmental programs, restructuring the department to decrease federal regulatory power, wanting to eliminate the Land and Water Conservation Fund which aimed at increasing the area of wildlife refuges and other protected land, easing regulations of oil and mining, and recommending lease of wilderness and shore lands such as Santa Monica Bay to explore and develop oil and gas. Watt resisted accepting donation of private land to be used for conservation . Watt proposed that 80 million acres (320,000 km ) of undeveloped land in
1587-526: The Lord returns , whatever it is we have to manage with a skill to leave the resources needed for future generations." One apocryphal quotation attributed to Watt is: "After the last tree is felled, Christ will come back." Glenn Scherer, writing for Grist magazine , erroneously attributed this remark to 1981 testimony by Watt before Congress. Journalist Bill Moyers , relying on the Grist article, also attributed
1656-565: The Senate Judiciary Committee taking up his nomination for the Supreme Court , received written questions tendered to him by Senator Chris Coons about any knowledge of Kozinski's inappropriate behavior, including his circulations of sexually explicit emails via his "Easy Rider Gag List." Kavanaugh denied knowing anything about the allegations against Kozinski prior to the publication of a news article about them in
1725-628: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 1975 to 1976, then for chief justice Warren Burger of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1976 to 1977. He then entered private practice as an associate with the law firms Forry, Golbert, Singer & Gelles from 1977 to 1979 and Covington & Burling from 1979 to 1981. He was a Deputy Legal Counsel of the Office of the President-Elect in Washington, D.C. (1980–81) and an Assistant Counsel for
1794-564: The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit , to a new seat created by 98 Stat. 333. Before the confirmation vote took place, former employees from Kozinski's time at the Office of Special Counsel warned the Senate that Kozinski was "harsh, cruel, demeaning, sadistic, disingenuous and without compassion." He was nonetheless confirmed by the United States Senate by a 54–43 vote on November 7, 1985. He received commission
1863-765: The United States District Court for the Southern District of California 's policy of indiscriminately shackling criminal defendants in all pretrial hearings violated the Constitution's Due Process Clause . In March 2018, the court's judgment was vacated as moot by the unanimous Supreme Court of the United States in United States v. Sanchez-Gomez . In 2008, the Los Angeles Times revealed Kozinski "maintained
1932-548: The United States Supreme Court , the fifth most of any judge during that time period. He was particularly successful placing his clerks with Justice Anthony Kennedy , for whom he had himself clerked. In the 2000s, while defending the Ninth Circuit against criticism because of a recent controversial decision, Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow , Kozinski, who had not been part of the case, emphasized judicial independence: "It seems to me that this
2001-497: The en banc process. Kozinski's opinion was criticized by Judge Stephen Reinhardt , who called it "bizarre and horrifying" and "unworthy of any jurist." The en banc decision was reversed by the Supreme Court, which called the Ninth Circuit's action "a grave abuse of discretion." Kozinski dissented from an order rejecting the suggestion for rehearing en banc an appeal filed by Vanna White against Samsung for depicting
2070-649: The right-leaning Natural Resources Committee and Environmental Pollution Advisory Panel of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce . In 1969, Watt was appointed the deputy assistant secretary of water and power development at the Department of the Interior . In 1975, Watt was appointed vice chairman of the Federal Power Commission . In 1977, Watt became the first president and chief legal officer of Mountain States Legal Foundation ,
2139-408: The 2018 case Trump v. Hawaii . Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority that "because there is persuasive evidence that the entry restriction has a legitimate grounding in national security concerns, quite apart from any religious hostility," the courts "must accept that independent justification." In May 2017, Kozinski wrote for the narrowly divided en banc circuit when it found that
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2208-567: The Court of Appeals for the Hollywood Circuit." Yet another of Kozinski's high-profile cases was the lawsuit filed by Mattel against MCA Records , the record label of Danish pop-dance group Aqua , for "turning Barbie into a sex object " in their 1997 song " Barbie Girl ." Kozinski opened the case with: "If this were a sci-fi melodrama, it might be called Speech-Zilla meets Trademark Kong" and famously concluded his 2002 opinion with
2277-762: The Creator." From 1980 through 1982, The Beach Boys and The Grass Roots separately performed at Independence Day concerts at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. , attracting large crowds. In April 1983, Watt banned the concerts, asserting that "rock bands" who had performed on the Mall on Independence Day in 1981 and 1982 had encouraged drug use and alcoholism and had attracted "the wrong element", who would subsequently rob attendees of similar events. Watt then announced that Las Vegas singer Wayne Newton ,
2346-553: The Department of the Interior in 1983, Watt lobbied the Department of Housing and Urban Development . Ten years later in 1995, Watt was indicted on 18 counts of felony perjury and obstruction of justice and accused of making false statements before a federal grand jury investigating influence peddling at the Department of Housing and Urban Development at that time. On January 2, 1996, Watt pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of withholding documents. On March 12, 1996, he
2415-611: The Indian reservations." A controversy erupted after a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in September 1983, when Watt mocked affirmative action with his description of a department coal leasing panel: "I have a black, a woman, two Jews and a cripple. And we have talent." Within three weeks of making this statement, on October 9, 1983, he announced his resignation at deputy undersecretary Thomas J. Barrack 's ranch, near President Reagan's Rancho del Cielo . After leaving
2484-471: The Interior was controversial primarily because he was perceived as hostile to environmentalism. Watt opened up nearly all of America's coastal waters to oil and gas drilling, widened access to coal on federal lands, and eased restrictions on strip-mining. His proposals to sell off federal lands failed due to extensive opposition. In 1983, he resigned after controversially remarking that a panel reviewing his coal-leasing policies had "every kind of mixture—I have
2553-526: The Judge asserted, "I control what you read, what you write, when you eat. You don't sleep if I say so. You don't shit unless I say so. Do you understand?" Bond also described interactions consistent with cycles of abuse . This sort of diatribe was a regular occurrence. The judge had incredibly high standards, and when we failed to meet them, we were raked over the coals. I do not think a week passed without at least one such outburst; during bad times, they were
2622-505: The Judiciary Committee." They said Kozinski was "harsh, cruel, demeaning, sadistic, disingenuous and without compassion," and that his actions as a boss "portray[ed] an unusual degree of hostility . . . and at times an almost complete disregard for the consequences of the actions upon individuals." Jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law ; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person
2691-409: The Ninth Circuit en banc reversed (7–4) the earlier denial. Kozinski dissented : If the en banc call is missed for whatever reason, the error can be corrected in a future case where the problem again manifests itself.... That this is a capital case does not change the calculus. The stakes are higher in a death case, to be sure, but the stakes for a particular litigant play no legitimate role in
2760-556: The Office of Counsel to the President in Washington, D.C. (1981). He was a Special Counsel for the Merit Systems Protection Board in Washington, D.C. (1981–82). While he was in the Office of Special Counsel, despite staff recommendations against termination, Kozinski overruled his staff and then repeatedly tutored Interior Secretary James G. Watt 's legal staff in how to rewrite the proposed termination of
2829-488: The United States all be opened for drilling and mining by 2000. The area leased to coal mining quintupled during his term as Secretary of the Interior. Watt boasted that he leased "a billion acres" (4 million km ) of coastal waters, even though only a small portion of that area would ever be drilled. Watt once stated, "We will mine more, drill more, cut more timber." According to the Center for Biological Diversity , Watt had
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2898-779: The United States in 1962 and settled in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles , where his father ran a small grocery store. Kozinski studied economics at the University of California, Los Angeles , graduating in 1972 with a Bachelor of Arts , cum laude . He then attended the UCLA School of Law , where he was a managing editor of the UCLA Law Review . He graduated in 1975 with a Juris Doctor ranked first in his class. After law school, Kozinski clerked for judge (later Supreme Court justice ) Anthony Kennedy of
2967-578: The West was untrue. Bananas were plentiful. In Romania, my father used to have to work a half-day to get three bananas. I remember going with my parents to an open-air market in Vienna and seeing all these bananas, cheap, ... and wondering whether they would be there tomorrow. I looked a week later and they were still there. There was no conscious rethinking or recalculating my point of view. I was now an instant and fervent capitalist. Kozinski's family immigrated to
3036-580: The actual imposition of higher standards, writing,"It does not inspire confidence in the federal judiciary, when we treat our own so much better than we treat everyone else." Kozinski was persuasive and Real's case was reopened and he was disciplined. He served as Chief Judge of the circuit from December 1, 2007, to December 1, 2014. In that capacity, he received complaints about Montana Federal Presiding Judge Richard F. Cebull , who had sent hundreds of emails disparaging women, racial minorities and liberal politicians. One joked that President Barack Obama 's birth
3105-450: The brutality of executions by making them look serene and peaceful." He went on to argue that states should revert to more primitive methods like the guillotine, electric chair, gas chamber, and firing squads because they are accurate and do not mask the brutality. He wrote, "Sure, firing squads can be messy, but if we are willing to carry out executions, we should not shield ourselves from the reality that we are shedding human blood. If we, as
3174-412: The comment to Watt. After it was discovered that the alleged quotation did not exist, Grist corrected the error, and Moyers apologized. "I never said it. Never believed it. Never even thought it," Watt later wrote of the statement. "I know no Christian who believes or preaches such error. The Bible commands conservation—that we as Christians be careful stewards of the land and resources entrusted to us by
3243-487: The foot". In early 1982, Congress voted to cite Watt in contempt due to refusing to hand over documents. Mad magazine listed ten Watt controversies on the back cover of their October 1982 issue, under the title "Watt... We Worry!" In an interview with the Satellite Program Network , Watt said, "If you want an example of the failure of socialism, don't go to Russia, come to America and go to
3312-399: The group attracted the wrong element." Vice President George H. W. Bush said of The Beach Boys, "They're my friends, and I like their music." Watt apologized to The Beach Boys after learning that President Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan were fans of the band. Nancy Reagan apologized for Watt. The White House staff gave Watt a plaster foot with a hole for his "having shot himself in
3381-483: The law in the Ninth Circuit. Kozinski was assigned an obscenity case, similar to that in Miller v. California . Ira Isaacs was accused of distributing videos depicting bestiality and other images. During the trial on June 11, 2008, the Los Angeles Times reported that Kozinski had "maintained a publicly accessible Web site featuring sexually explicit photos and videos" at alex.kozinski.com. The Times reported that
3450-462: The location of her apartment, would complain when his clerks "wanted salad for lunch instead of whatever he was having," and "regularly diminished women and their accomplishments." Complaints about Kozinski's abusive employment practices were raised as early as 1985 by former Kozinski employees. Those employees claimed Kozinski was unqualified to join the Ninth Circuit "because of a harsh temperament, questionable decisions and misleading testimony before
3519-410: The material was inappropriate but defended other content as "funny." Calling the coverage a "baseless smear" by a disgruntled litigant, Stanford University law professor Lawrence Lessig pointed out that the Times had unfairly taken the videos and pictures out of context in its descriptions. He wrote that one frequently-mentioned video, the video described above as a "half-dressed man cavorting with
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#17327830742983588-571: The material. Kozinski's wife wrote a defense characterizing those of his posts which were alleged to be pornographic, to rather be humorous. Kozinski had previously been involved in a dispute over government monitoring of federal court employees' computers. Administrative Office head Ralph Mecham dropped the monitoring program but protested in the press. In 2001, Kozinski, who possesses sophisticated computer skills, personally disabled software which blocked federal court computers in three appellate circuits from receiving pornography. On June 15, 2008, it
3657-448: The militant conservationist group were "pirates," reversed the denial of injunction by the district court, and affirmed its own provisional injunction against Sea Shepherd. The injunction bars Sea Shepherd from approaching within 500 yards of ICS vessels. Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson dismissed the opinion enjoining his organization from interfering with ICS vessels as "entirely devoid of real evidence" and claimed that Sea Shepherd USA
3726-674: The nomination. Greg Wetstone, the chief environment counsel at the House Energy and Commerce Committee during the Reagan administration , who subsequently served as director of advocacy at the Natural Resources Defense Council , argued that Watt was one of the two most "intensely controversial and blatantly anti-environmental political appointees" in American history. The other was Anne Gorsuch , director of
3795-638: The obscenity trial of Ira Isaacs . In July 2009, a panel, headed by Judge Anthony Joseph Scirica , wrote that Kozinski should have administered his web server more carefully, but that Kozinski's apology and deletion of the website, in addition to the panel's admonishment and the public dissemination of it, sufficiently ended the matter. Kozinski has been accused of sexual misconduct, ranging from harassment to assault, by more than 15 women. Former Kozinski clerk Katherine Ku has described Kozinski's chambers—where three or four law clerks, one or two judicial assistants, and one or more judicial externs typically worked at
3864-457: The proceedings. Thomas Martin Thompson was convicted based largely on the testimony of his fellow inmates, but doubts about the effectiveness of his defense counsel led seven former California prosecutors to file briefs on Thompson's behalf. The Ninth Circuit had originally denied Thompson's habeas petition attacking the state court decision. Two days before Thompson's scheduled execution,
3933-616: The record, among those who served as Secretary of the Interior, of listing the fewest species protected under the Endangered Species Act . The record was later surpassed by Dirk Kempthorne , a George W. Bush appointee, who had not listed a single species in the 15-month period since his confirmation. Watt periodically mentioned his Dispensationalist Christian faith when discussing his method of environmental management. Speaking before Congress, he once said, "I do not know how many future generations we can count on before
4002-415: The same day. At 35, he was the youngest federal Appeals Court judge at the time of appointment. In 2005, after concluding that the Ninth Circuit insufficiently addressed breaches of judicial conduct by Judge Manuel Real , after rules had been enacted to discourage behavior that would initiate "a substantial and widespread lowering of public confidence in the courts among reasonable people," Kozinski demanded
4071-444: The site included a photo of naked women on all fours painted to look like cows; a video of a half-dressed man cavorting with a sexually aroused farm animal; images of masturbation and public and contortionist sex; a slide show striptease featuring a transgender woman; a series of photos of women's crotches as seen through snug fitting clothing or underwear; and content with themes of defecation and urination. Kozinski admitted that some of
4140-501: The train, making plans for myself, how I would to go the West where people were oppressed and I would share my knowledge of Communism and help bring enlightenment by helping to tear down capitalism. ... And the next thing I remember, I was in Vienna, and I got bubblegum and chocolate, which were freely available. It was as though a cloud or veil had lifted. It was such a different world, you had real consumer goods. People weren't running around with shackles. Everything that had been said about
4209-762: The war years in a Romanian ghetto . In 1958, Kozinski's parents applied to the Romanian government for permission to emigrate from the country. They received permission four years later in 1962, when Kozinski was 12 years old. Kozinski, who had grown up as a committed communist in Bucharest, became what he described as "an instant capitalist" when he took his first trip outside of the Iron Curtain , to Vienna , where he partook of such luxuries as chewing gum and bananas. Kozinski later recounted: I remember leaving Romania, December 24, 1961. And I still remember being on
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#17327830742984278-608: The words: "The parties are advised to chill." The majority found the due process rights of a man, who was accused of smuggling illegal immigrants across the border, were not violated despite the fact that witnesses who could have exonerated him had been deported before they could be deposed. Kozinski dissented. Federal prosecutors, however, dropped all charges and released the defendant. In 2012, after prosecutors used similar tactics in another case, United States v. Leal-Del Carmen , Kozinski's position in Ramirez-Lopez became
4347-484: Was in full compliance with the injunction. In July 2014, Joseph Rudolph Wood , who had been sentenced to death, filed a motion before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals claiming a right to know which chemicals were included in the lethal injection that was to be used to execute him. While the court denied his motion, Kozinski issued a dissenting opinion, calling the use of drugs a "misguided effort to mask
4416-512: Was nominated by President Ronald Reagan on August 10, 1982, to the United States Claims Court , to a new seat authorized by 96 Stat. 27. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on August 20, 1982, and received commission on October 1, 1982. He served as Chief Judge from 1982 to 1985. His service terminated on February 9, 1985, due to resignation. Kozinski was nominated by President Ronald Reagan on June 5, 1985, to
4485-631: Was reported that Kozinski had recused himself from the case. On June 5, 2009, the Judicial Council of the Third Circuit issued an opinion clearing Kozinski of any wrongdoing. In February 2013, Kozinski wrote an opinion reversing a district court ruling that had denied Japanese whalers Institute of Cetacean Research a preliminary injunction against the US-based anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society . Kozinski found that
4554-625: Was sentenced to five years' probation and ordered to pay a fine of $ 5,000 and perform 500 hours of community service . In a 2001 interview with The Denver Post , Watt applauded the energy policy of the George W. Bush administration , stating that it was just what he recommended in the early 1980s: "You've got to have more oil, you've got to have more coal, you've got to have more of everything," Watt said. "You've got to have more conservation too, but ... solar energy and wind energy—they're just teeny infant portions [of energy]. You're not going to run
4623-603: Was sentenced to five years' probation. Watt was born in Lusk, Wyoming , the son of Lois Mae (née Williams) and William Gaius Watt, a lawyer and homesteader. In 1957, he married Leilani Bomgardner; they had two children. Watt attended the University of Wyoming , earning a bachelor's degree in 1960 and a juris doctor degree in 1962. Watt's first political job was as an aide to Republican Party Senator Milward L. Simpson of Wyoming, whom he met through Simpson's son, Alan . A lifelong Republican , he served as Secretary to
4692-451: Was succeeded by Judge Sidney R. Thomas . In an interview on CBS 's 60 Minutes in April 2017, Kozinski talked about his support for the death penalty, but with the reservation that death by lethal injection should no longer be used. He advocated the use of the guillotine or firing squad and said that for any country that wants to take human life, citizens should be prepared to watch
4761-447: Was the product of a sexual relationship between Obama's mother and a dog. Kozinski appointed a five-judge panel to review the matter in which he was the chair. It recommended disciplinary measures but not removal; the particulars of the investigation were largely kept confidential, at Kozinski's initiative. During his tenure as a court of appeals judge, he became a prominent feeder judge . Between 2009–13, he placed nine of his clerks with
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