Jed S. Rakoff
Jed S. Rakoff
Jed Saul Rakoffis a United States District Judge on senior status for the Southern District of New York...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionJudge
Date of Birth1 August 1943
CountryUnited States of America
based courts fact legitimacy needs reason
Everything needs to be public. The legitimacy of the courts comes from the fact that they reason openly, on the record, based on facts.
asked found impressed oath parties stop took
I've never been impressed with bureaucratic tradition. I don't like it when the parties come to me and say, 'This is the way that it's always done, judge.' I never found anything in the oath I took or the statutes I was asked to look at that said, 'Judge, stop thinking, because this is the way it was done before.'
Judges have to be neutral, but they don't have to be eunuchs.
adhere executive judges people power protect raw simply standards
Judges are the people who have to protect the rights of individuals, have to protect the rights of minorities, have to protect the rights in the Constitution, have to protect the requirement that the executive and the legislature not simply exercise raw power but adhere to standards of reasonableness and constitutionality.
attorney great huge men respect
I have huge respect for Preet Bharara, a great U.S. Attorney by any measure. But even great men can make mistakes.
arrive bend figure judges particular respect result
I don't have any respect for judges who arrive at the result first, and then try to figure out some way they can bend the law to reach their particular predilections.
baseball individual talent
One of the many things I like about baseball is how it combines individual talent and teamsmanship.
I have a past of making a fool of myself.
freedom lost name restrict seek thereby
If, in the name of combating terrorism, we so restrict our own freedom, have we not thereby lost part of the very battle we seek to win?
case denies impose neither nor securities serious
Why should the court impose a judgment in a case in which the SEC alleges a serious securities fraud, but the defendant neither admits nor denies wrongdoing?
hard uphold
It's very hard to uphold individual liberty when the person you're representing is often a crook.
guy high system terms
The price of being a nice guy is too high - much too high - in terms of the system of justice.
When I was a kid, and for many years after, I was your classic afraid-to-dance-type person.
agents benefit commit companies directly inevitably might totally
Companies do not commit crimes; only their agents do. And while a company might get the benefit of some such crimes, prosecuting the company would inevitably punish, directly or indirectly, the many employees and shareholders who were totally innocent.