Hooboy! Disgraced former Ninth Circuit judge Alex Kozinski is back. He’s written a piece in the Wall Street Journal asserting — with little more then naked conjecture — that the United States’ elections could be canceled. The piece is very short, shockingly devoid of context, and lacking any semblance of intellectual rigor.
Kozinski spends a solid half of the article telling an anecdote about the cancelation of the elections in his native Romania. He uses that as a springboard to speculate about American elections. But to get there, he first has to throw out some right-wing talking points about free speech.
As the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals detailed in Missouri v. Biden, our government exerted considerable pressure, even coercion, to extirpate ideas from social media. Certain topics—such as Covid’s origin, remedies and vaccine safety, transgenderism, climate change and the legitimacy of the 2020 election—were deemed nondebatable. Many who expressed views contrary to the official position were canceled.
Listen, there are some genuine problems with free speech in this country. But exactly ZERO of them are anything in Missouri v. Biden (later Murthy v. Missouri). And it is very telling that Kozinski references the Fifth’s Circuit’s take on the case — because they were reversed by the Supreme Court (you know the Supreme Court that has a 6-3 conservative majority). There is no free speech problem there.
The ex-jurist is already on record defending wild conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 vaccine and the 2020 election as “correct or at least debatable.” Which, no, they aren’t. But advancing far-right theories is part of Kozinski’s path back to relevance since he left the bench under a cloud of scandal. But this is some truly out-of-pocket shit.
The former judge’s fall from grace happened in 2017. Kozinski retired amid a sexual harassment scandal that rocked the legal world. While the jurist was somewhat famous in legal circles for his bawdy sense of humor, the extent of the alleged harassment — asking women clerks to view pornography with him in his chambers, making inappropriate sexual comments, and verbal abuse heaped on females working in his chambers — was more hidden. However, an exposé on the judge sparked an avalanche of over a dozen women coming forward to share their experiences with the judge. But his retirement short-circuited any investigation into the allegations.
In the WSJ article, Kozinski pivots from individuals getting colloquially “canceled” to the actual cancellation of U.S. elections with all the grace of a panda learning to ice skate.
Could American elections be canceled next? Some states came close in 2024 by attempting to remove from their ballots the candidate who eventually won the presidency. There was no uproar; the Supreme Court had to intervene. During the pandemic, Americans put up with unprecedented and draconian restrictions on their freedom of movement, school closures, destruction of businesses and interference with doctor-patient relationships. Much of this met with little resistance, in large part because authorities in government and media suppressed discussion and debate. If enough panic is stirred up, canceling elections isn’t inconceivable.
This is actually head-smackingly dumb. Litigating the application of the 14th Amendment’s prohibition on insurrectionists holding office is actually a point in favor of the rule of law. It’s not like political animus was the motivation behind some states trying to keep Donald Trump off the ballot, it was an attempt to hold fealty to the Constitution. The final authority on the Constitution weighed in. I don’t even much like the result in the case and can concede that is how our system is designed to work. And, good grief with the COVID victimization trope again! Listen, it was a pandemic. Our laws are able to respond to extraordinary circumstances, and good faith efforts to keep people alive were even struck down when courts found the measures impeded rights. This is all a demonstration of how an actual functional government works. From these examples, rushing to a conclusion that American elections could be canceled because of vibes is whiplash inducing.
Finally, Kozinski holds up JD Vance’s much maligned speech at the Munich Security Conference, where the vice president tried to pick a fight with some of America’s strongest allies, as a sort of bellwether of freedom.
Our legacy media have greeted Mr. Vance’s speech largely with disdain and horror. They are wrong. The speech is epic. It reminds Europeans and Americans that the values of the Enlightenment, as captured in our Constitution—not least the right to think, speak and debate freely—are the glue that binds us together. If we don’t defend those values, there isn’t much left worth defending.
This bit right here makes me want to scream. You want to take about “the right to think, speak and debate freely”? Look at what side is banning books. And erasing vital parts of the history of Stonewall. And memory-holing the reason we had to guarantee birthright citizenship. And trying to impeach judges just because they don’t like how they ruled. And investigating members of Congress because they called Elon Musk a “dick” on TV. And. And. And. And. And. And.
The article is so wildly disingenuous for a legal mind that was one considered a bright star. It’s almost like there’s something else afoot.
Oh. OH. Oh. Canceling elections is certainly one way to get around the pesky problem of the 22nd Amendment.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.
The post Disgraced Former Judge Alex Kozinski Primes Pump For Donald Trump Canceling Elections appeared first on Above the Law.
Hooboy! Disgraced former Ninth Circuit judge Alex Kozinski is back. He’s written a piece in the Wall Street Journal asserting — with little more then naked conjecture — that the United States’ elections could be canceled. The piece is very short, shockingly devoid of context, and lacking any semblance of intellectual rigor.
Kozinski spends a solid half of the article telling an anecdote about the cancelation of the elections in his native Romania. He uses that as a springboard to speculate about American elections. But to get there, he first has to throw out some right-wing talking points about free speech.
As the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals detailed in Missouri v. Biden, our government exerted considerable pressure, even coercion, to extirpate ideas from social media. Certain topics—such as Covid’s origin, remedies and vaccine safety, transgenderism, climate change and the legitimacy of the 2020 election—were deemed nondebatable. Many who expressed views contrary to the official position were canceled.
Listen, there are some genuine problems with free speech in this country. But exactly ZERO of them are anything in Missouri v. Biden (later Murthy v. Missouri). And it is very telling that Kozinski references the Fifth’s Circuit’s take on the case — because they were reversed by the Supreme Court (you know the Supreme Court that has a 6-3 conservative majority). There is no free speech problem there.
The ex-jurist is already on record defending wild conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 vaccine and the 2020 election as “correct or at least debatable.” Which, no, they aren’t. But advancing far-right theories is part of Kozinski’s path back to relevance since he left the bench under a cloud of scandal. But this is some truly out-of-pocket shit.
The former judge’s fall from grace happened in 2017. Kozinski retired amid a sexual harassment scandal that rocked the legal world. While the jurist was somewhat famous in legal circles for his bawdy sense of humor, the extent of the alleged harassment — asking women clerks to view pornography with him in his chambers, making inappropriate sexual comments, and verbal abuse heaped on females working in his chambers — was more hidden. However, an exposé on the judge sparked an avalanche of over a dozen women coming forward to share their experiences with the judge. But his retirement short-circuited any investigation into the allegations.
In the WSJ article, Kozinski pivots from individuals getting colloquially “canceled” to the actual cancellation of U.S. elections with all the grace of a panda learning to ice skate.
Could American elections be canceled next? Some states came close in 2024 by attempting to remove from their ballots the candidate who eventually won the presidency. There was no uproar; the Supreme Court had to intervene. During the pandemic, Americans put up with unprecedented and draconian restrictions on their freedom of movement, school closures, destruction of businesses and interference with doctor-patient relationships. Much of this met with little resistance, in large part because authorities in government and media suppressed discussion and debate. If enough panic is stirred up, canceling elections isn’t inconceivable.
This is actually head-smackingly dumb. Litigating the application of the 14th Amendment’s prohibition on insurrectionists holding office is actually a point in favor of the rule of law. It’s not like political animus was the motivation behind some states trying to keep Donald Trump off the ballot, it was an attempt to hold fealty to the Constitution. The final authority on the Constitution weighed in. I don’t even much like the result in the case and can concede that is how our system is designed to work. And, good grief with the COVID victimization trope again! Listen, it was a pandemic. Our laws are able to respond to extraordinary circumstances, and good faith efforts to keep people alive were even struck down when courts found the measures impeded rights. This is all a demonstration of how an actual functional government works. From these examples, rushing to a conclusion that American elections could be canceled because of vibes is whiplash inducing.
Finally, Kozinski holds up JD Vance’s much maligned speech at the Munich Security Conference, where the vice president tried to pick a fight with some of America’s strongest allies, as a sort of bellwether of freedom.
Our legacy media have greeted Mr. Vance’s speech largely with disdain and horror. They are wrong. The speech is epic. It reminds Europeans and Americans that the values of the Enlightenment, as captured in our Constitution—not least the right to think, speak and debate freely—are the glue that binds us together. If we don’t defend those values, there isn’t much left worth defending.
This bit right here makes me want to scream. You want to take about “the right to think, speak and debate freely”? Look at what side is banning books. And erasing vital parts of the history of Stonewall. And memory-holing the reason we had to guarantee birthright citizenship. And trying to impeach judges just because they don’t like how they ruled. And investigating members of Congress because they called Elon Musk a “dick” on TV. And. And. And. And. And. And.
The article is so wildly disingenuous for a legal mind that was one considered a bright star. It’s almost like there’s something else afoot.
Oh. OH. Oh. Canceling elections is certainly one way to get around the pesky problem of the 22nd Amendment.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @[email protected].
