[3] In 1978, Sarokin worked as the finance chairman for his friend Bill Bradley, who was running for a United States Senate seat to represent New Jersey.
[citation needed] In 1988, Sarokin presided over a landmark cigarette liability lawsuit that resulted in a $400,000 award to the estate of Rose Cipollone, who died in 1984 after smoking for 40 years.
[9] On May 5, 1994, President Bill Clinton nominated Sarokin to a newly created seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
As part of shifting to senior status, Sarokin asked to move his chambers from New Jersey to California to be closer to his children.
On April 24, 1996, an 11-member council of the Third Circuit denied Sarokin's request, citing federal guidelines relating to judicial office space.
His advocacy was heralded in a July 2016[23] article online at The Washington Post entitled, Judge who Freed ‘Hurricane’ Carter Now Helping Six Imprisoned Men, but Only Obama Can Save Them,[23] where author, Tom Jackman, details the meticulous investigation and ground breaking conclusions of Judge Sarokin, who became convinced of the innocence of the IRP6.
[24] Judge Sarokin didn't stop at proclamations, he wrote a series on the Huffington Post Crime Blog about the IRP6 case, authored a play, called The Race Card Face Up,[25][26] and ultimately a letter on behalf of the IRP6 to President Obama pushing for their clemency, something Sarokin stated he had never done in sixty years as a lawyer or judge.
[citation needed] Sarokin died in La Jolla on June 20, 2023, at the age of 94, after suffering from pulmonary fibrosis and other ailments.