Courts & Litigation Executive Branch

Lawfare Daily: The Besieged District Judges, with Reynolds Holding and Judge Jed Rakoff

Roger Parloff, Jed Rakoff, Reynolds Holding, Jen Patja
Wednesday, December 3, 2025, 7:00 AM
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Veteran legal journalist Reynolds Holding, author of "Better Judgment: How Three Judges Are Bringing Justice Back to the Courts," and U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff, one of the judges featured in his book, sit down with Lawfare Senior Editor Roger Parloff to discuss the role of district judges in our justice system. They also discuss the attacks those judges are enduring today from the Department of Justice, the White House, Congress, and even members of the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Roger Parloff

Roger Parloff

@rparloff
rparloff.bsky.social
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Roger Parloff is a journalist based in Washington, D.C. For 12 years, he was the main legal correspondent at Fortune Magazine. His work has also been published in ProPublica, The New York Times, New York, NewYorker.com, Yahoo Finance, Air Mail, IEEE Spectrum, Inside, Legal Affairs, Brill’s Content, and others. An attorney who no longer practices, he is the author of "Triple Jeopardy," a book about an Arizona death penalty case. He is a senior editor at Lawfare.
Jed Rakoff

Jed Rakoff

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Judge Jed Rakoff is a U.S. district judge for the Southern District of New York.
Reynolds Holding

Reynolds Holding

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Reynolds Holding is a journalist and author of "Better Judgment: How Three Judges Are Bringing Justice Back to the Courts."
Jen Patja

Jen Patja

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Jen Patja is the editor of the Lawfare Podcast and Rational Security, and serves as Lawfare’s Director of Audience Engagement. Previously, she was Co-Executive Director of Virginia Civics and Deputy Director of the Center for the Constitution at James Madison's Montpelier, where she worked to deepen public understanding of constitutional democracy and inspire meaningful civic participation.
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