Quotable quotes from judge Alex Kozinski

Judge Alex Kozinski, chief judge of the ninth circuit court of appeals, is rather outspoken. In a good way. This page collects some of his most memorable quips:

The two provisions have as much in common as apples and pineapples: They sound vaguely similar but they grow on entirely different statutory trees.

No one who has occasion to study the Limitations of Liability Act has been struck by its lucidity.

Liberty — the freedom from unwarranted intrusion by government — is as easily lost through insistent nibbles by government officials who seek to do their jobs as by those who sole purpose it is to oppress; the piranha can be as deadly as the shark.

The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure are clear as mountain spring water.

It is a tribue to the state of competition in America that the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice has found no worthier target than this paper tiger on which to expend limited taxpayer resources.

It is wrong to use some constitutional provisions as springboards for major social change while treating others like senile relatives to be cooped up in a nursing home until they quit annoying us. (re the right to bear arms)

Hizzoner was kind enough to give me a quote to use on future editions of Little Brother: "I'm a huge fan of *Little Brother.* Reading about M1k3y, Ange and their friends helped me visualize the escalating intrusions on our freedom and privacy wrought by advances in technology. The book describes a dystopia that seems chillingly plausible--and near." And yeah, I was pretty chuffed.

Quotations of Alex Kozinski

• [Bevatron Repairman]

  I met a fellow who clerked for Kozinski.  On his application, he said he played memory chess (i.e., Chess without a board — one has to remember where your pieces are).  Kozinski apparently called him, pulled out his own chess board, and played the guy over the phone.  Kozinksi lost and the guy got the job.

  • [hymenopterid]

    e4

• [Charles W. Barnes, Esq.]

  Kozinski is awesome. Only read a handful of his opinions, but he appears not to adhere to any orthodoxy.

• [amnyc]

  Kozinski  is also deservedly famous in legal circles for his 1990 decision in U.S. vs. Syufy: in a decision regarding movie theater ownership, Kozinski managed to include the names of 204 different movie titles.

  http://notabug.com/kozinski/syufy

• [Mister44]

  Oh – I really like this one: “Liberty — the freedom from unwarranted intrusion by government — is as easily lost through insistent nibbles by government officials who seek to do their jobs as by those who sole purpose it is to oppress; the piranha can be as deadly as the shark.”

  Beware of the piranha!

  • [digi_owl]

     These days, piranhas come in both government and corporate guise. Some seems to even shift appearances more readily than octopi.

  • [DarcySmith]

    He is a piranha, feeding on civil rights. http://youtu.be/x_UV2Mao2-E

• [ryedha]

  Great quotes and all, but who’s Hizzoner and what does Judge Kozinski have to do with “Little Brother?”

  • [kiavahr]

     I think he’s saying “Hizzoner” read the book and provided that quote; try saying it out loud.

• [coffee100]

  It is wrong to use some constitutional provisions as springboards for major social change while treating others like senile relatives to be cooped up in a nursing home until they quit annoying us.

  Would that this enlightened wisdom could be more frequently invoked to remind all governments of the Tenth Amendment and the line it draws around the limited powers of the Federal Government.

  • [digi_owl]

     Meh, they just export the power to private entities as they are not so limited.