FC: Judge Kozinski replies to Politech post on judges and spying

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Previous Politech message:

"Judicial bureaucrats retreat, say judges won't be spied on"
http://www.politechbot.com/p-02485.html

********

Date: Sun, 9 Sep 2001 01:02:06 -0700 (PDT)
From: The Easy Rider <kozinski () usc edu>
To: Thomas Leavitt <thomasleavitt () hotmail com>
cc: declan () well com
Subject: Re: FC: Judicial bureaucrats retreat, say judges won't be spied on

I've responded to the 300+ people who've written to me
directly.  I haven't responded to posted comments.
My response is that I try to make things a little better in
the corner of the world where I have some control.  I hope
that this will set a good example for others, but I think
it's silly to dump on someone who's trying to move in the
right direction because he can't change the entire world to
suit their preferences.  By that rationale, nothing would
ever get changed.

One of my major concerns in this matter is that if we adopt
the most intrusive policy for our employees, we're more
likely to approve it for others as well, when the issue
arises in cases before us.  So telling us that we ought to
suffer just like everyone else is a prescription for
ensuring that everyone else will continue to suffer.

This whole thing reminds me of the joke about the guy who
got a genie in a bottle and the genie granted him one wish.
The catch was that whatever he got, his neighbor would get
double.  So the guy asked the genie to remove one of his
kidneys.  I grew up with thinking like that in Romania and
basically I find it stupid and narrow-minded.  It comes from
people who have not the courage to fight their own fights,
or stand up for their own rights, and get satisfaction from
pulling everyone else down.  These kinds of people only
succeed if someone leads the way for them, and even then
they will complain that the leader got there first.  I call
them whiners.

Feel free to post this.

Ciao.  AK


On Sun, 9 Sep 2001, Thomas Leavitt wrote:

>Sorry for the lack of clarity.
>
>If you go to the WSJ OpinionJournal article, where your article is
>published, there is a link that says, "Respond to this article." Your
>article has provoked quite a few responses, most of which essentially accuse
>you (and other federal judges expressing a concern about this monitoring) of
>hypocrisy for advocating a standard for employees of the judiciary that is
>not applied to other federal employees, or employees in the private sector.
>
>I share your concerns about the monitoring of federal employees, and I also
>share the anger of many of these folks at the intrusiveness of their
>employers, etc.
>
>I was curious as to whether you had a response to the reactions expressed by
>these folk.
>
>Regards,
>Thomas Leavitt
>
>
>--
>Thomas Leavitt -- thomasleavitt () hotmail com; ICQ #16455919
>http://www.internetmanifesto.org/
>http://www.sczenkarate.org/
>http://www.space.org/
>http://www.gnosis.org/
>
>Wired since 1981. Internet enabled since 1990. Web enabled since 1993.
>
>
>
>>From: The Easy Rider <kozinski () usc edu>
>>To: Thomas Leavitt <thomasleavitt () hotmail com>
>>CC: declan () well com
>>Subject: Re: FC: Judicial bureaucrats retreat, say judges won't be spied on
>>Date: Sat, 8 Sep 2001 23:55:58 -0700 (PDT)
>>
>>
>>
>>Sorry, I'm lost.  Am I asked to respond to something?  If so
>>what--is there a link I'm not seeing?
>>
>>Ciao.  AK
>>
>>On Sat, 8 Sep 2001, Thomas Leavitt wrote:
>>
>> >It is indeed a splendid letter! Thank you for sharing it!
>> >
>> >I find the responses posted on the site to be quite interesting. I am
>>very
>> >curious as to what the judge's response to them would be.
>> >
>> >Thomas
>> >
>> >--
>> >Thomas Leavitt -- thomasleavitt () hotmail com; ICQ #16455919
>> >http://www.internetmanifesto.org/
>> >http://www.sczenkarate.org/
>> >http://www.space.org/
>> >http://www.gnosis.org/
>> >




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