9th Circuit Judicial Council Sued Over Kozinski Porn 'Cover-Up'

SAN FRANCISCO—Remember Alex Kozinski? In 2008, he was the Chief Judge for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals who, in an unusual move, wrested the Ira Isaacs obscenity trial away from District Court Judge George H. King and assigned himself to preside. The trial of fetish movie producer Isaacs ended prematurely with Kozinski recusing himself after the Los Angeles Times posted a story about Kozinski's private website, where he posted a variety of softcore porn images and videos. The Times got its info from attorney Cyrus Sanai, who reportedly had long nursed a hard-on (sic) for Kozinski, who two years ago was forced to resign his judgeship after numerous female staffers accused him of improper sexual conduct that consisted of inappropriate touching and showing them lewd pictures and videos. But according to a lawsuit filed by Sanai in December of 2019 in the U.S. District Court for Northern California, he claims that his Kozinski porn site leak got him in trouble with the Judicial Council of the Ninth Circuit, and that the Council and various judges and other court personnel had known of Kozinski's history of harassing female staffers even before Sanai tipped the Times to the porn site story. According to the suit, those people covered up that harassment, and since then, Sanai has been suffering retaliation from those involved, to the detriment of his legal career. "The alleged cover-up extended as far as requesting that the California state bar investigate Sanai for misconduct, he said," according to an article published today on Law360.com. "The California Bar later filed disciplinary charges against Sanai, which were largely dismissed, although a claim for filing frivolous judicial complaints remains active, according to court documents." The latest news regarding that lawsuit is that in June, the Judicial Council filed a motion with the district court to dismiss the suit, arguing that the council and its members, all of whom are judges, are immune from such lawsuits under "sovereign immunity," a concept that stretches back to English common law and, as "judicial immunity," has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. However, Sanai has argued, and some legal experts agree, that judicial immunity does not protect judges from lawsuits targeting administrative decisions those judges made while not presiding over a trial, so the Judicial Council and its co-defendants are also arguing that Sanai's complaints are too old—in legalese, "time-barred"—from proper consideration by the district court. They also argue in the motion that Sanai has sued them under common law for "offenses" including "abuse of process" that do not exist. "Plaintiff should not be permitted to entangle yet another judicial forum in whatever quest he is pursuing," the motion said. The Judicial Council and co-defendants are being represented by the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Division. Sanai is representing himself pro se. Unfortunately, the Northern District of California does not allow its docket filings to be accessed online. The late AVN Online columnist Paul Krassner, publisher of The Realist, let readers know some of the contents of Kozinski's website, including "A slide show, 'BrazilianHairCut,' depicting a vagina being shaved. A close-up of a shaved crotch with the caption, 'Democrats New Slogan-Read My Lips-No More Bush.' A parody of the Mastercard commercial, depicting four women smiling for the camera, but one of them has her skirt hiked up far enough to reveal her pubic hair, accompanied by a punch line, 'Your Beaver on the Internet: Priceless.'... Photos of naked women on all fours who were painted to look like cows. A folder of 'camel toe' photos with close-ups of female crotches in snug-fitting panties. A woman in a shower massaging her breasts, each of which is larger than her head. A video, 'Upside Down,' presenting a contortionist couple performing oral sex on each other." The complete Krassner "catalog" may be found here. In October of 2018, Sanai testified about his conflict with Kozinski before the U.S. Judicial Conference during its Review of Sexual Harassment Policy, which may be seen here, beginning at roughly the 18-minute mark.