Wacky Zacky Moussaoui is getting some hard lessons in American jurisprudence from Judge Leonie M. Brinkema.

Brinkema, 58, a former graduate student in philosophy who later graduated from Cornell law school, worked for almost a decade as a Justice Department lawyer at headquarters and in a U.S. attorney’s office before joining the federal judiciary in 1985, first as a U.S. magistrate and then, in 1993, as a U.S. District Court judge with a lifetime appointment.

Brinkema’s latest take-charge actions include:

* Raising the profile of U.S. marshals. Two U.S. marshals in civilian clothes step forward to stand next to Moussaoui every time he rises from a high-backed chair at the defense table to address the court. Brinkema has warned Moussaoui that U.S. marshals may restrain him at the defense table or escort him from the courtroom to watch proceedings on closed circuit television if he steps out of line.

* Designating court-appointed standby defense lawyers to be ready to pick up Moussaoui’s defense in the event that he ignores judicial admonitions or breaches courtroom etiquette. Brinkema says she won’t allow Moussaoui to delay the case or impede the courthouse’s reputation for speedy trials, a practice that has led lawyers to dub it the “rocket docket.”

* Choking off potentially theatrical maneuvers by Moussaoui. Brinkema ended Moussaoui’s access to outside legal advice from free-wheeling Houston lawyer Charles Freeman, a fellow Muslim who met with Moussaoui five times for a total of 11 hours at the detention center in Alexandria. Brinkema told Moussaoui and Freeman that the outside lawyer could consult with Moussaoui only by joining the case as a standby defense lawyer and undergoing an FBI background check. Freeman refused, telling Brinkema that the designation would mean becoming “a toothless paper tiger amounting to absolutely no counsel at all.”

He must be just raging inside at having to put up with this kind of treatment from a woman. Oh well, Zacky; at least she’s wearing a robe.