Moving up in the "cool judges" list today (not that anyone keeps such lists) is Alex Kozinski of the 9th circuit. He was recently in the news for writing the decision in Planned Parenthood v. ACLA which was later overturned by the court sitting en banc. He has a reputation for being brilliant and conservative. His coolness, however, has nothing to do with his political leanings, today he has appeared several times in the blogosphere for much more humorous reasons.

The first is his delightful majority opinion in the case Mattel, Inc. v. MCA Records, Inc. If you haven't been following this case (cf. this post on How Appealing), the long in short is i'm sure you all remember the song "Barbie Girl" by aqua (Flora toyed with singing it at karaoke last night). Mattel makers of Barbie also remember this song and for obvious reasons do not like it. Fortunately for funny people everywhere the 9th circuit ruled that this was legitimate parody. However, the subject material allowed for many great remarks. The Volokh Conspiracy singles out the last paragraph (quoted here) which ends "The parties are advised to chill." However, the whole opnion is laced with witty remarks. Some are intentional, while some are just by the nature of addressing so silly a topic in so serious a setting. My favorites of each type are:

"Aqua is a Danish band that has, as yet, only dreamed of attaining Barbie-like status."

"The song pokes fun at Barbie and the values that Aqua contends she represents. See Cliffs Notes, Inc. v. Bantam Doubleday Dell Publ'g Group, 886 F.2d 490, 495-96 (2d Cir. 1989). The female singer explains, 'I'm a blond bimbo girl, in a fantasy world/Dress me up, make it tight, I'm your dolly."

However the thing that really moved judge Kozinski onto the cool judges list is, he not only reads the Volokh Conspiracy, he not only writes them emails about their posts, but he emailed not concerning his decision, but rather said the following about movies from the middle ages(see this post):

Alex Kozinski suggests A Man for All Seasons (1966)... Also, he suggests Army of Darkness (1993) (the sequel to Evil Dead II (1987)), where "Ash finds himself stranded in the 13th Century with his car, his shotgun, and his chainsaw," if you're "in a more camp mood."

Who'd have thunk it, judges watch movies like that... I guess they're real people too...

("what if I told you that I hadn't seen Evil Dead II yet, do you think I would"
"yeah, I guess"
"why?"
"cause its such a brilliant movie, its so funny, and violent, and the soundtrack kicks fucking ass!")

(You didn't really think I that phrase could come up without me quoting Hi-Fi, did you?)

Finally, when googling him I ran accross this article on the Yiddishization of the law, which is quite a gem.

BTW, for those of you who are sick of my long posts being about math, economics, or the law, tommorow's long post will be a review of some of the recent trailers, because if we're all too poor to see movies, at least we can watch the trailers for free...