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
attracted materials taking
I was always attracted to taking a novel position, but one grounded in the materials I'd been given, not made up out of whole cloth.
When I was a kid, and for many years after, I was your classic afraid-to-dance-type person.
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.
came cases central criminal fraud hears market realize securities society
Once I really got into securities fraud prosecutions, I came to realize how central they were to the maintenance of a free market and how, in many ways, they are far more important to the welfare of our society than many of the more sensational criminal cases that one hears about.
hard uphold
It's very hard to uphold individual liberty when the person you're representing is often a crook.
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.'
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.
guy high system terms
The price of being a nice guy is too high - much too high - in terms of the system of justice.
baseball individual talent
One of the many things I like about baseball is how it combines individual talent and teamsmanship.
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?
common deterrent gets longer
I think it's common sense to say that the longer away from a crime it gets prosecuted, the less deterrent effect there is.
admired among deeply flawed integrated jfk passed though
I admired Truman, among many other things, because he integrated the Army. I admired JFK because the very first civil rights legislation was passed at his insistence. JFK showed what you could do, though he was a deeply flawed person, as we all now know.