Jed S. Rakoff

Jed S. Rakoff is a United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York. (June 2021)

Sentenced by Algorithm

Computer programs used to predict recidivism and determine prison terms have a high error rate, a secret design, and a demonstrable racial bias.

When Machines Can Be Judge, Jury, and Executioner: Justice in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

by Katherine B. Forrest

June 10, 2021 issue

Getting Away With Murder

It’s time to start prosecuting executives for crimes they commit on behalf of their companies.

Corporate Crime and Punishment: The Crisis of Underenforcement

by John C. Coffee Jr.

December 3, 2020 issue

Covid in the Prisons

July 2, 2020 issue

A socially distanced courtroom in Los Angeles, April 21, 2020

Covid & the Courts

May 28, 2020 issue

Letter

Douglas G. Morris

Covid in the Prisons

July 2, 2020 issue

Brandon Mayfield and his children outside a federal courthouse after his release from custody, Portland, Oregon, May 2004. Mayfield was arrested after fingerprints on a bag found near the site of the 2004 Madrid bombings were mistakenly identified as his.

Jailed by Bad Science

December 19, 2019 issue

A daily service at Touro Synagogue, the centuries-old place of worship of the Jewish community of Rhode Island, which welcomed President George Washington as a visitor in 1790 and gave rise to his famous letter about religious freedom, Newport, 2004

Washington’s Legacy for American Jews

As Washington envisaged in his letter, Americans have in so many ways become “a great and a happy people,” Jewish Americans not least among them. But eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

September 23, 2019

The Last of His Kind

The Making of a Justice: Reflections on My First 94 Years

by Justice John Paul Stevens

September 26, 2019 issue

Our Lying Eyes

Inaccurate eyewitness identifications appear to be the single greatest contributor to wrongful convictions.

April 18, 2019 issue

Marshall Law

January 17, 2019 issue

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall; painting by Henry Inman, 1832

Hail to the Chief

Without Precedent: John Marshall and His Times

by Joel Richard Paul

November 22, 2018 issue

Letter

Richard W. Hughes

Marshall Law

January 17, 2019 issue

‘Members of the Mochida family awaiting evacuation bus,’ Hayward, California, May 1942; photograph by Dorothea Lange. It is on view in the exhibition ‘Then They Came for Me: Incarceration of Japanese Americans During World War II,’ at the International Center of Photography, New York City, January 26–May 6, 2018.

Don’t Count on the Courts

April 5, 2018 issue

Judges Jon O. Newman and Denise Cote at the Second Circuit Judicial Conference in 1997, with Judge Newman impersonating Carnac the Magnificent, the character created by Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show

The MVP of the Second Circuit

Benched: Abortion, Terrorists, Drones, Crooks, Supreme Court, Kennedy, Nixon, Demi Moore, and Other Tales from the Life of a Federal Judge

by Jon O. Newman

November 23, 2017 issue

Will the Death Penalty Ever Die?

How can one applaud capital punishment knowing that those executed may well be innocent?

Courting Death: The Supreme Court and Capital Punishment

by Carol S. Steiker and Jordan M. Steiker

June 8, 2017 issue

You Won’t Get Your Day in Court

February 9, 2017 issue

Winners Should Recover Costs

Every country other than the US with a developed judicial system entitles the winners in civil suits to recover their litigation costs from the losers.

December 22, 2016 issue

Letter

Jed S. Rakoff

You Won’t Get Your Day in Court

February 9, 2017 issue

Why You Won’t Get Your Day in Court

Over the past few decades, ordinary US citizens have increasingly been denied effective access to their courts.

November 24, 2016 issue

Letter

David Slawson

Winners Should Recover Costs

Every country other than the US with a developed judicial system entitles the winners in civil suits to recover their litigation costs from the losers.

December 22, 2016 issue

Letter

Jed S. Rakoff

You Won’t Get Your Day in Court

February 9, 2017 issue