HomeUploadUpload DirectHotlinkRandomAbouttheme toggle

Judge Alex Kozinski: From Communist Romania to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals

Views: 869
"Those of you who've had the good fortune to be born in the United States simply have not known the absence of freedoms," says Judge Alex Kozinski, Chief Judge of the U.S Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. "You can only imagine, but not experience, what it's like to live in a society where these freedoms are absent."

Born in 1950 to Holocaust survivors, Kozinski grew up as a committed communist in Bucharest, Romania. On his first trip outside of the Iron Curtain, in Vienna, Austria, he experienced forbidden luxuries like bubble gum and bananas. It was his first taste of freedom, and it caused him to become, in his words, "an instant capitalist."

Today, Kozinski is responsible for some of the most influential - and controversial - legal decisions in the United States. Kozinski's rulings have challenged the Obama administration over the issue of same-sex marriage. In a case that tested the limits of parody and artistic expression, he has weighed in on whether a Barbie doll qualifies as a sex object. In one of the most influential dissents in recent memory, he caused federal prosecutors to drop all charges against a defendant who'd been convicted of smuggling of illegal immigrants across the U.S.-Mexican border.

Kozinski sat down with Reason editor-in-chief Matt Welch during Reason Weekend in Las Vegas for a wide-ranging discussion about freedom and the law. How do mobile phones and cloud computing affect our right to privacy? Why do judges interpret the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution so broadly? What's wrong with the practice of jury nullification?

Kozinski, a self-described libertarian, answers these questions, and many others, with the insight and wry humor that comes from decades of experience on the bench - and a childhood under communism.

About 50 minutes.

Produced by Todd Krainin. Camera by Meredith Bragg and Alex Manning.

Go to http://reason.com/reasontv/2013/03/08/judge-alex-kozinski-at-reason-weekend for downloadable versions and subscribe to ReasonTV's YouTube Channel to receive notifications when new material goes live.
@ReasonVidsfollow
Thumbnail for How to Build Infrastructure During an Age of Sequester: Reason Foundation's Robert W. Poole25:24
How to Build Infrastructure During an Age of Sequester: Reason Foundation's Robert W. Poole
ReasonVids
909 views
Thumbnail for Moonshine: The American Rebel Spirit7:40
Moonshine: The American Rebel Spirit
ReasonVids
959 views
Thumbnail for How San Jose Took on the Unions and Saved Millions Through Pension Reform9:48
How San Jose Took on the Unions and Saved Millions Through Pension Reform
ReasonVids
835 views
Thumbnail for What We Saw at the People's Climate March3:18
What We Saw at the People's Climate March
ReasonVids
870 views
Thumbnail for Remy: You Need to Calm Down (Taylor Swift Parody)2:16
Remy: You Need to Calm Down (Taylor Swift Parody)
ReasonVids
853 views
Thumbnail for The First 48 of 46 | Grunt Speak Live3:15:35
The First 48 of 46 | Grunt Speak Live
Terrence Popp
1314 views
Thumbnail for ฟังสดเดอะโกสเรดิโอ  25/8/2567 เรื่องเล่าผีเดอะโกส | TheghostradioOfficial8:55:43
ฟังสดเดอะโกสเรดิโอ 25/8/2567 เรื่องเล่าผีเดอะโกส | TheghostradioOfficial
invidious
158 views
Thumbnail for Like the founders envisioned ...? Bitch, the founders would have already convicted you and your democrat cohorts of treason and left you swinging outside the courthouse2:40
Like the founders envisioned ...? Bitch, the founders would have already convicted you and your democrat cohorts of treason and left you swinging outside the courthouse
AOU
1355 views
Thumbnail for Are We In the Final Days of Marijuana Prohibition?3:16
Are We In the Final Days of Marijuana Prohibition?
ReasonVids
847 views
Thumbnail for DC City Study Launch 10-26-106:51
DC City Study Launch 10-26-10
IJvids
888 views
Thumbnail for Eiji Shirow vs Gogeta (SS1, Pocket) - MUGEN (Gameplay) S1 • E320:58
Eiji Shirow vs Gogeta (SS1, Pocket) - MUGEN (Gameplay) S1 • E32
memology101
1230 views
Thumbnail for Author D.J. Waldie on Being a 'Partisan of Suburban Places'10:15
Author D.J. Waldie on Being a 'Partisan of Suburban Places'
ReasonVids
877 views
Thumbnail for The Madness of Barack Obama0:55
The Madness of Barack Obama
ReasonVids
816 views
Thumbnail for Berliners Mark 25 Years Since Fall of the Berlin Wall1:45
Berliners Mark 25 Years Since Fall of the Berlin Wall
ReasonVids
838 views
Thumbnail for American Made Rice Cooker1:35
American Made Rice Cooker
AOUisgay
503 views
Thumbnail for Kiyosaki - 11:00 "I want to be the boyfriend, not the ex-husband" savage!14:04
Kiyosaki - 11:00 "I want to be the boyfriend, not the ex-husband" savage!
AOU
1342 views
Thumbnail for Lenore Skenazy on Freeing Your Kids (and Yourself) in the 21st Century1:13:53
Lenore Skenazy on Freeing Your Kids (and Yourself) in the 21st Century
ReasonVids
672 views
Thumbnail for Recalled Gov. Gray Davis: Public-Sector Unions "Can't Overtax the System"3:22
Recalled Gov. Gray Davis: Public-Sector Unions "Can't Overtax the System"
ReasonVids
828 views
Thumbnail for How Trump's Trillion-Dollar Infrastructure Plan Could Succeed10:49
How Trump's Trillion-Dollar Infrastructure Plan Could Succeed
ReasonVids
935 views
Thumbnail for the big Lie0:38
the big Lie
bestofvoatxyz
487 views
Thumbnail for Learn How to Take an Insult | Live From The Lair14:40
Learn How to Take an Insult | Live From The Lair
Terrence Popp
566 views
Thumbnail for 3 Policies More Racist Than Donald Sterling and Cliven Bundy2:10
3 Policies More Racist Than Donald Sterling and Cliven Bundy
ReasonVids
830 views

points

Permalink
Reply
law, communism, romania, matt welch, first amendment, second amendment, fourth amendment, tenth amendment, commerce clause, privacy, ninth circuit, court of appeals, reason weekend
TOS  •  Add Keywords  •  Donate  •   Analytics  •   DMCA  •   Puzzle