Posner on Posner: Professor Ronald Collins Organizes Q&A of Judge Richard Posner for Concurring Opinions
Professor Ronald Collins organized 24 noted legal figures, including judges, legal scholars, professors and journalists, to participate in a group interview of Judge Richard Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit for Concurring Opinions. The series, called "Posner on Posner" consisted of Judge Posner answering more than 150 questions submitted via email, and topics ranged from privacy and intellectual property rights to the politicization of the judiciary.
The series began with a two-part profile of Judge Posner written by Professor Collins, assembled from Judge Posner's answers to biographical questions. "Make of Judge Posner what you will, but it is hard to ignore his impact on law in modern America," Professor Collins said.
Both Professors Kathryn Watts and Ryan Calo participated in the Q&A, asking questions about who "owns" judges' papers and privacy. Their questions are below and the full Q&A can be found here.
Professor Kathryn Watts: I recently wrote an article arguing that federal judges' working papers—meaning their internal chambers' papers and electronic correspondence and documents relating to cases and other official court business—should no longer be treated as the property of individual judges but rather should be viewed as governmental property.
- Do you see any reason why judges' working papers and electronic correspondence and documents, which are created by governmental officials in furtherance of official governmental duties and often while using governmental resources and facilities, should continue to be treated as the private property of individual judges?
- And do you have plans for what will become of all of your own chambers’ papers and electronic correspondence and documents after you retire or leave the bench?
Judge Posner:
- I didn't know it was our private property! I agree it should belong to the government and I have always assumed it did belong to it. I certainly wouldn't claim any property right in the paper or electronic documents in my case files or archived e-mail. However, I think whoever the custodian is should protect certain confidences, especially communications between judges.
- No plans.
Professor Ryan Calo: You are famously skeptical of the idea that the law should protect the efforts of market participants to conceal information about themselves. But the beauty of markets lies precisely in their ability to facilitate transactions between parties with wildly disparate backgrounds, tastes, and views—people who otherwise would avoid one another, but come together on the basis of a willingness to pay or receive a particular price.
How do you respond to the contention that a world without a meaningful degree of privacy in such situations would be a world full of balkanized, and hence deeply inefficient, markets?
Judge Posner: I’m not opposed to legal protection of privacy. But I do regard privacy as a common means by which people present a misleading impression of themselves, often deceiving the people with whom they deal, either personally or in transacting. So I think we must be careful not to overprotect privacy.