E54: Judge Roy Altman Makes the Case for America

My family drove a Toyota Previa, basically a buffalo on wheels, through Southern Civil War sites. At Missionary Ridge, I saw beautiful snow; my dad reminded me that people died so enslaved people could be free. I felt I owed public service to the country that gave my family everything.

That is exactly the stuff I want injected into my veins. Judge Roy Altman came from Venezuela, became a young federal judge after Columbia athletics, Yale Law, and prosecution work, and brings a courtroom framework to Israel in Israel on Trial.

My dad and I argue over whether he pushed me or I pushed him. But my parents taught me America let us become anything if we worked hard and respected people. On my first school day, I tried Spanish and Hebrew for a crayon; my mom told me I needed English. Now I swear in new citizens, the one federal proceeding where everybody leaves happy.

What did Division One football and baseball give you that law school could not?

Sports are the foundation floors before anything taller gets built. In Miami heat, with wet pads and blood in your nose, a quarterback cannot show fear in the huddle. I drew on that during exhausting trials, when court ran all day and preparation went deep into the night.

With your abilities, why choose work that relentless?

After October Seventh, I still do my judicial job, then often fly out for talks and get home to put my kids to bed before returning to sentencings. You go deep for what matters. Freedom asks devotion, not just gratitude.

Why should twelve ordinary people find truth better than highly educated people arguing online?

We evolved in small groups where survival depended on recognizing honesty. A group can dilute private grudges and blind spots; face-to-face judgment uses cues we have developed forever. Phones reverse that: isolated people absorb endless information without shared deliberation or a way to test it. A jury restores those conditions, using defined questions and legal instructions. The jury room also trains citizens for self-government.

If everyone has biases, why life tenure for judges?

A judge with a fixed exit date may plan the next job and favor universities, firms, or interests that could hire them. Life tenure removes that temptation. Chief judges can already limit a colleague’s work when capacity changes; I would not give that leverage to outside power brokers.

How do we keep courts accessible without rewarding junk cases?

Be careful with barriers: a poor person must be able to seek a remedy against a rich one. But frivolous claims need consequences, including, sometimes, the losing side covering fees and costs. Being a judge is not deciding what is morally right. My mandate is whether parties followed the law and whether it fits the Constitution, even if I dislike it.

Your book asks for evidence, not slogans, on the biggest accusations against Israel. Why take that fight around the country?

I want Americans to ask what they are being told about a close ally, and who is flooding them with it. Israel matters in cybersecurity, AI, drones, and future conflicts; I see a resilient, inventive society confronting larger enemies. On genocide, I believe the legal standard requires intent to eliminate a people. Israel’s warnings, evacuations, and protected routes for civilians in Gaza point the opposite way, while Hamas sought civilian deaths for propaganda. Criticizing policy, settlements, Ben-Gvir, or Netanyahu is normal. But demanding Israel disappear treats Jewish self-determination differently from every other national project, including a Palestinian state. In that form, anti-Zionism is anti-Semitic.

The American dream is alive. I meet people from Vietnam, Rwanda, Latin America, and the Caribbean who arrived with almost nothing and built remarkable lives. I am a beneficiary of that opportunity, and I see it everywhere.

We kept trying to recruit you for office. You have the quarterback thing: fast, prepared, and able to make the case from any angle.

Honestly, I am thinking about coaching my nine- and six-year-olds’ baseball games. I love serving as a judge. It is hard, stimulating work, and I am happy doing it.

The usable lesson is to work your ass off, keep stretching, and get better through practice. His story made me more positive about young people and America.

Carry that patriotism forward: love the country, contribute to it, serve it, and criticize it when needed without teaching people it is worthless. Share the show with somebody who would enjoy it; we are genuinely humbled that people are listening.