Tuesday, December 23, 2003
NINTH CIRCUIT OF HELL
Crescat Sententia and the Curmudgeonly Clerk disagree about Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski, coiner of the famed (in some circles, at least) Toyota Principle of personal responsibility: "You asked for it, you got it." Will Baude of Crescat thinks he sounds like a lot of fun; the Clerk thinks he sounds insufferable. Both opinions were prompted by a recent Legal Affairs profile in which Judge Kozinski himself provides the definitive (I believe) opinion: he's "sort of weird" (offered as an explanation for why he was turned down by 18 of 20 law firms after graduation).
If specifying which of your six pet chickens (say, Veronica or Heckle) laid the particular eggs you are giving away as gifts (to your clerks? the profile doesn't say), one oddity cited in the profile, is weird, then what about keeping score of the mice executed by your cat (an eccentricity displayed by Seventh Circuit Judge Richard Posner)? Maybe all great jurists are kind of weird.
The profile depicts a judge in love with making trouble. His clerk rejects an email: "You can't send this. It's not as if we're not being listened to! Come on, Judge, it's just too much." Sounds like the makings of a great blogger, though.
If specifying which of your six pet chickens (say, Veronica or Heckle) laid the particular eggs you are giving away as gifts (to your clerks? the profile doesn't say), one oddity cited in the profile, is weird, then what about keeping score of the mice executed by your cat (an eccentricity displayed by Seventh Circuit Judge Richard Posner)? Maybe all great jurists are kind of weird.
The profile depicts a judge in love with making trouble. His clerk rejects an email: "You can't send this. It's not as if we're not being listened to! Come on, Judge, it's just too much." Sounds like the makings of a great blogger, though.
