Judge wants investigation into his Web porn

Known for being independent-minded
At best, the exposure of his Web site was an embarrassing turn of events for Kozinski, who reached the pinnacle of a long, illustrious and colorful judicial career in November when he was appointed chief judge of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over nine western states.

The appointment capped a 26-year career on the bench that began in 1982 at age 32 when he was named chief of the newly created federal claims court, which handles lawsuits related to federal contracts.

Three years later, President Ronald Reagan appointed him to the 9th Circuit, making him the youngest federal appellate judge in the country.

President George H.W. Bush seriously considered nominating Kozinski for high court openings in 1990 and 1991, though the jurist hasn't received the same considerations from the current Bush administration.

Still, Kozinski enjoys a sterling reputation as an eloquent opinion writer and a titan on the bench even while his off-the-bench eccentricities run the gamut.

Kozinski was born in Romania to Holocaust survivors and came to America when he was 12. Six years later, he won a date in 1968 while appearing on the TV show "The Dating Game" after greeting the contestant with "good afternoon, flower of my heart."

He purports to build his own computers and said he was "an authority on snowboarding" while successfully vying to win a gossip blog's contest for "judicial hottie."

He has written video game reviews for the Wall Street Journal, and his prolific commentary on everything from the death penalty to the use of Yiddish in the law has appeared in legal journals and mainstream media alike.

Kozinski is notoriously independent-minded.

Seven years ago, he engaged Washington, D.C., federal court administrators in a battle over Web filters they installed to block porn from government computers. The computer-savvy Kozinski walked into a government computer room in San Francisco and personally disabled the filters for three appellate circuits, including his own, touching off a feud with administrators he ultimately won when they stopped blocking porn.

Kozinski often puts in 80-hour work weeks and is infamous for sending 3 a.m. e-mails to the recent law school graduates who successfully win coveted one-year appointments as his law clerk.

"He has an outlandish personality for a federal judge," said former clerk Harry Susman, a Houston lawyer. "He has a great sense of humor."

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