Jed Saul Rakoff
Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1996 and confirmed by voice vote, Jed Saul Rakoff is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. He earned a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1969. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Born
- 1943 · age 83
- Appointed by
- William J. Clinton, 1996
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Swarthmore College 1964 · Harvard Law School 1969
- Succeeded
- David Norton Edelstein
- Succeeded by
- Katherine Bolan Forrest
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Southern District of New York succeeded David Norton Edelstein | Clinton (D) | Voice vote |
Party letters show the appointing president’s party, not the judge’s own. A voice vote means the chamber approved aloud. No senator-by-senator tally is recorded.
Confirmation vote
Voice vote
The Senate approved this confirmation aloud, with no senator-by-senator tally recorded. Recorded roll-call votes begin in 1989.
Education
| Swarthmore College | B.A. | 1964 |
| University of Oxford, Balliol College | M.Phil. | 1966 |
| Harvard Law School | J.D. | 1969 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Rakoff was assigned 7,323 district-court cases (1984–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 236 days across 7,138 closed cases.
Case assignment is from CourtListener’s PACER-derived docket records: a partial sample, not a complete caseload, reflecting the judge last assigned each case. How we count.
On appeal
Of 409 of Rakoff’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 304 were affirmed, 58 reversed or vacated, and 47 affirmed in part and reversed in part. This is a historical count of appellate outcomes for cases we could match, not a judgment of the judge, and not a complete record. How we count.
In our data, Rakoff authored 512 published opinions for the court (1996–2012). Most cited: Associated Press v. United States Department of Defense (163 citations).
A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge.
Recent & notable rulings
| Year | Case | Citation | Cited |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Associated Press v. United States Department of Defense | 395 F. Supp. 2d 17 | 163 |
| 2002 | Albert Fadem Trust v. Duke Energy Corp. | 214 F. Supp. 2d 341 | 61 |
| 2006 | RSM Richter Inc. v. Aguilar (In Re Ephedra Products Liability Litigation) | 349 B.R. 333 | 59 |
| 1996 | Guadagno v. Wallack Ader Levithan Assoc. | 932 F. Supp. 94 | 57 |
| 2001 | In Re Razorfish, Inc. Securities Litigation | 143 F. Supp. 2d 304 | 51 |
| 2008 | United States v. Glynn | 578 F. Supp. 2d 567 | 50 |
| 2011 | Zivali v. AT & T MOBILITY, LLC | 784 F. Supp. 2d 456 | 47 |
| 1999 | Coakley v. Jaffe | 49 F. Supp. 2d 615 | 43 |
| 2001 | Aguinda v. Texaco, Inc. | 142 F. Supp. 2d 534 | 41 |
| 2007 | Blumatte v. Quinn | 521 F. Supp. 2d 308 | 40 |
| 2010 | Public Employees' Retirement System v. Merrill Lynch & Co. | 714 F. Supp. 2d 475 | 39 |
| 2005 | Rosario-Dominguez v. United States | 353 F. Supp. 2d 500 | 35 |
| 2000 | UMG Recordings, Inc. v. MP3. Com, Inc. | 92 F. Supp. 2d 349 | 35 |
| 1999 | Chimurenga v. City of New York | 45 F. Supp. 2d 337 | 32 |
| 2010 | In Re Pfizer Inc. Shareholder Derivative Litigation | 722 F. Supp. 2d 453 | 31 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 512 authored opinions in our data. “Cited” is inbound citations across the CourtListener corpus. Case links open the ruling’s full text (CourtListener) or its page here; read the methodology and verify against the primary source.
Questions & answers
- Who appointed Jed Saul Rakoff?
- President William J. Clinton appointed Jed Saul Rakoff to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1996.
- Was Jed Saul Rakoff appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Jed Saul Rakoff was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Jed Saul Rakoff's confirmation vote?
- Jed Saul Rakoff was confirmed by voice vote on December 29, 1995. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court is Jed Saul Rakoff on?
- Jed Saul Rakoff is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- CourtListener bulk data (Free Law Project): authored opinions & citation counts
How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources
See something wrong? Report an error. Fixes are logged in the corrections log.
30 years on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).