Alex Kozinski

Alex Kozinski (1950- ), was a judge on the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where he served as chief from 2007-2014. He is well known for his cases and writings. These have been especially influential in the areas of commercial speech and the right of publicity. Born in Bucharest, Romania, Kozinski fled with his parents first to Vienna and then to Hollywood, California, where he was reared and where he became a U.S. citizen in 1968. Kozinski excelled at the University of California at Los Angeles, including its law school — he was managing editor of its law review. After obtaining his law degree, he clerked for Judge Anthony M. Kennedy at the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and then for Chief Justice Warren E. Burger at the Supreme Court before working as a private attorney and serving in the Ronald Reagan administration. In 1982 Reagan nominated Kozinski to serve as chief judge of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. Reagan nominated him again in 1985, this time to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, where at age 35, Kozinski was the youngest judge to serve at that level since William Howard Taft had served in 1892. Kozinski retired in December 2017 after an inquiry was opened into sexual misconduct allegations against him. The inquiry was stopped after Kozinski resigned because the court could only investigate current judges under the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act of 1980,