Jed S. Rakoff
Jed Saul Rakoff was born on the 1st of January 1943, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He grew up in the Germantown section of that city and attended Central High School of Philadelphia. His academic journey began at Swarthmore College, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature in 1964. During his time there, he served as student council president and editor-in-chief of the college newspaper. He then pursued graduate studies at Balliol College at Oxford University, earning a Master of Philosophy degree in Indian history in 1966. This path led him to Harvard Law School, from which he received a Juris Doctor degree cum laude in 1969. At Harvard, he was also a member of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau. These early years established the foundation for a career that would eventually see him become one of the most influential federal judges in American history.
On the 11th of October 1995, President Bill Clinton nominated Jed S. Rakoff to fill a seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. That seat had been vacated by David Norton Edelstein. The Senate confirmed this nomination on the 29th of December 1995. Rakoff received his judicial commission on the 4th of January 1996, and officially entered on duty on the 1st of March 1996. His tenure included a significant transition point when he assumed senior status on the 31st of December 2010. Despite taking senior status, he continued to take the full load of cases rather than reducing his workload. This decision allowed him to remain an active force in the court system for decades after his initial appointment. He became known as a major feeder judge, sending more clerks to the Supreme Court than any other district court judge from 2011 to 2015. Numerous clerks followed thereafter, establishing his influence on future legal minds.
In 2002, Jed S. Rakoff declared the federal death penalty unconstitutional in the case United States v. Quinones. Opponents of capital punishment heralded his ruling, with The New York Times calling it a cogent argument that all Americans should contemplate. However, the decision was reversed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Rakoff had suspected his ruling would be overturned because he knew a majority of the Second Circuit would interpret a Supreme Court decision differently. Later, in 2009, he refused to approve a settlement between Bank of America and the Securities and Exchange Commission over non-disclosure of bonuses at Merrill. He rejected the $33 million fine initially proposed and told the parties to prepare for trial. He forced them to submit a higher penalty and a detailed statement about what happened. In another high-profile instance involving Citigroup, he blocked a $285 million settlement because the agency had not proved fraud occurred. He wrote that the SEC's policy deprived the court of assurance that relief imposed had any basis in fact. These actions defined his reputation as a judge willing to challenge powerful financial institutions and government agencies alike.
In November 2004, the Associated Press submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Act seeking unredacted transcripts of Department of Defense proceedings regarding Guantanamo Bay detainees. The Government invoked FOIA's Exemption 6, claiming redaction protected detainee privacy. Rakoff held that detainees had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the information at issue. He ordered the Defense Department to release unredged transcripts including names of 317 detainees who participated in Combatant Status Review Tribunals. This provided the most comprehensive view to date of the Guantanamo prison population. Later, in 2021, sitting by designation on the Ninth Circuit, he wrote an opinion ordering the EPA either to ban chlorpyrifos or modify tolerances to safe levels. Chlorpyrifos was patented by Dow in 1966 and was the most widely used conventional insecticide in the country as of 2017. His ruling ended a 14-year dispute between nonprofits and the EPA. The court found the EPA violated its statutory duties by denying petitions without weighing safety evidence. After the ruling, the EPA announced a final rule revoking all tolerances for residues of chlorpyrifos on the 18th of August 2021.
In 2012, Jed S. Rakoff presided over the landmark insider trading trial of Rajat Gupta, former managing partner of McKinsey. At trial, prosecutors showed that Gupta leaked information about Warren Buffett's $5 billion investment in Goldman Sachs to his friend Raj Rajaratnam. Within minutes, Rajaratnam ordered traders to buy up to $40 million in Goldman Sachs stock. Gupta was found guilty on three counts of security fraud and one count of conspiracy. Rakoff sentenced him to two years, stating the heart of the offense was an egregious breach of trust. He critiqued U.S. Sentencing Guidelines for basing punishment solely on illicit gains rather than harm inflicted. In 2015, while sitting by designation on the Ninth Circuit, he created a circuit split on what constitutes insider trading. His opinion in United States v. Salman held that any insider disclosing confidential information to relatives without receiving anything in return was guilty. This decision ran counter to the Second Circuit's controversial doctrine and prompted the Supreme Court to review it. The Supreme Court unanimously affirmed his holding, overturning the conflicting Second Circuit doctrine. These rulings established him as a leading expert on white-collar crime and insider trading.
In 2021, Jed S. Rakoff granted a sentence reduction to Andrew Ramsay, who was convicted of murder in aid of racketeering connected to a 1992 gang-related shooting. Ramsay was 18 years old at the time of the Labor Day block party shooting in the Bronx. Under the First Step Act, Rakoff reduced Ramsay's sentence from life imprisonment to 30 years. His opinion explored why youth matters in sentencing, collecting insights from neuroscientific research about adolescent attributes like immaturity and susceptibility to peer influence. He argued that adolescents' irresponsibility is not as morally reprehensible as that of an adult due to these developmental factors. Because adolescents develop self-control slowly, rehabilitation may be more likely for them than older defendants. Applying these principles, he found Ramsay's youth and upbringing highly relevant to culpability. This opinion has since been cited by more than 80 federal courts. It demonstrated how brain science research could inform criminal justice reform and reduce sentences for juvenile offenders based on scientific understanding of adolescent development.
Jed S. Rakoff serves as adjunct professor of law at Columbia Law School, where he has taught since 1988. He teaches first-year Criminal Law classes and seminars on White-Collar Crime, Civil and Criminal Law interplay, Class Actions, and Science and the Courts. He also holds positions as adjunct professor at NYU Law School, teaching seminars on Class Actions and Science and the Courts. Additionally, he teaches annual one-week seminars at UC Berkeley School of Law and University of Virginia School of Law. Since 2009, he has been a trustee of the William Nelson Cromwell Foundation, which sponsors research in U.S. legal history. He represented the federal judiciary on the National Commission on Forensic Science from 2013 to 2017. He co-chaired the National Academies of Science's Committee on Eyewitness Identification. His scholarly output includes over 200 published articles and more than 900 speeches delivered. He authored Why the Innocent Plead Guilty and the Guilty Go Free: And Other Paradoxes of Our Broken Legal System in 2021. He is co-author of five other books and regularly contributes to the New York Review of Books since 2014.
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Common questions
When was Jed S. Rakoff born and where did he grow up?
Jed Saul Rakoff was born on the 1st of January 1943, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He grew up in the Germantown section of that city.
How did President Bill Clinton nominate Jed S. Rakoff to the federal bench?
President Bill Clinton nominated Jed S. Rakoff to fill a seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on the 11th of October 1995. The Senate confirmed this nomination on the 29th of December 1995, and he received his judicial commission on the 4th of January 1996.
What major rulings did Jed S. Rakoff make regarding capital punishment and financial fraud?
In 2002, Jed S. Rakoff declared the federal death penalty unconstitutional in the case United States v. Quinones. In later years, he refused to approve settlements between Bank of America and the Securities and Exchange Commission over non-disclosure of bonuses at Merrill and blocked a $285 million settlement involving Citigroup due to lack of proven fraud.
Why is Jed S. Rakoff known as a feeder judge for Supreme Court clerks?
Jed S. Rakoff became known as a major feeder judge because he sent more clerks to the Supreme Court than any other district court judge from 2011 to 2015. This influence continued with numerous clerks following thereafter, establishing his impact on future legal minds.
How has Jed S. Rakoff influenced criminal justice reform through neuroscience research?
In 2021, Jed S. Rakoff granted a sentence reduction to Andrew Ramsay by exploring why youth matters in sentencing using insights from neuroscientific research about adolescent attributes like immaturity and susceptibility to peer influence. His opinion has since been cited by more than 80 federal courts to demonstrate how brain science research could inform criminal justice reform.