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"Chief Judge Kozinski Cleared of Misconduct By Judicial Panel"

"Chief Judge Kozinski Cleared of Misconduct By Judicial Panel": David Lat has this post at "Above the Law."

You can access the ruling of the Judicial Council of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, dated June 5, 2009 and made public today, by clicking here.

The following summary of the ruling's result appears on pages 11-12 of the opinion:

This opinion, which will be made public according to the Rules for Judicial-Conduct and Judicial-Disability Proceedings, concludes the investigation in the following manner. We find that the Judge's possession of sexually explicit offensive material combined with his carelessness in failing to safeguard his sphere of privacy was judicially imprudent. Moreover, once the Judge became aware in 2007 that offensive material could be accessed by members of the public, his inattention to the need for prompt corrective action amounted to a disregard of a serious risk of public embarrassment. We join with the Special Committee in admonishing the Judge that his conduct exhibiting poor judgment with respect to this material created a public controversy that can reasonably be seen as having resulted in embarrassment to the institution of the federal judiciary. We determine that the Judge's acknowledgment of responsibility together with other corrective action, his apology, and our admonishment, combined with the public dissemination of this opinion, properly conclude this proceeding.

And the opinion's final paragraph states, "With respect to the identified Complaint involving alex.kozinski.com, the proceeding will be concluded under Rule 20(b)(1)(B) because appropriate corrective action has been taken. To the extent the identified Complaint involves the Judge's conduct with respect to the United States v. Isaacs case, that portion of the identified Complaint will be dismissed under Rule 20(b)(1)(A)(i)."

Full post as published by How Appealing on July 02, 2009 (boomark / email).