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Portrait of Jed S. Rakoff

Jed S. Rakoff

23 quotes in 307 categories

Jed Saul Rakoff is an American lawyer and jurist serving as a senior United States district judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Quick Facts About Jed S. Rakoff

Notable works: Why the Innocent Plead Guilty and the Guilty Go Free

About Jed S. Rakoff

Jed Saul Rakoff is an American lawyer and jurist serving as a senior United States district judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. He was appointed in 1996 by President Bill Clinton, and assumed senior status in 2010.

Biography source: Wikipedia

Quotes by Jed S. Rakoff

When I was a kid, and for many years after, I was your classic afraid-to-dance-type person.

After

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It's very hard to uphold individual liberty when the person you're representing is often a crook.

Crook

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The price of being a nice guy is too high - much too high - in terms of the system of justice.

Being

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In baseball you have individual responsibility, and if you fail it, you get an error. But at the same time, your focus…

About

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I was always attracted to taking a novel position, but one grounded in the materials I'd been given, not made up out…

Always

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Companies do not commit crimes; only their agents do. And while a company might get the benefit of some such crimes, prosecuting…

Agents

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I admired Truman, among many other things, because he integrated the Army. I admired JFK because the very first civil rights legislation…

Admired

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If crimes are committed, they are committed by people; they are not committed by some free-floating entity. These companies and other entities…

Automatic

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I've never been impressed with bureaucratic tradition. I don't like it when the parties come to me and say, 'This is the…

Always

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One of the many things I like about baseball is how it combines individual talent and teamsmanship.

About

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I think it's common sense to say that the longer away from a crime it gets prosecuted, the less deterrent effect there…

Away

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Everything needs to be public. The legitimacy of the courts comes from the fact that they reason openly, on the record, based…

Based

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In my experience, most federal prosecutors, at every level, are seeking to make a name for themselves, and the best way to…

Almost

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Why should the court impose a judgment in a case in which the SEC alleges a serious securities fraud, but the defendant…

Admit

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If, in the name of combating terrorism, we so restrict our own freedom, have we not thereby lost part of the very…

Battle

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Judges have to be neutral, but they don't have to be eunuchs.

Judges

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Once I really got into securities fraud prosecutions, I came to realize how central they were to the maintenance of a free…

About

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If you prosecute a CEO or other senior executive and send him or her to jail for committing a crime, the deterrent…

Best

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I have a past of making a fool of myself.

Fool

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I don't have any respect for judges who arrive at the result first, and then try to figure out some way they…

Any

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An application of judicial power that does not rest on facts is worse than mindless, it is inherently dangerous. If its deployment…

Admission

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I have huge respect for Preet Bharara, a great U.S. Attorney by any measure. But even great men can make mistakes.

Any

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Judges are the people who have to protect the rights of individuals, have to protect the rights of minorities, have to protect…

Adhere

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