Paul L. Friedman

Paul L. Friedman
Senior judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia
Incumbent
Assumed office December 31, 2009
Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia
In office June 16, 1994 – December 31, 2009
Appointed by	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	Gerhard Gesell
Succeeded by	Beryl A. Howell
Personal details
Born	(1944-02-20) February 20, 1944 Buffalo, New York
Alma mater	Cornell University (B.A.) University of Buffalo Law School (J.D.)

Paul L. Friedman (born February 20, 1944) is a Senior United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. He serves as secretary of the American Law Institute.

Education

Friedman was born in Buffalo, New York. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell University in 1965, where he was president of the Quill and Dagger society and a member of Zeta Beta Tau. He received a J.D. from University at Buffalo Law School, in 1968.

Career

Friedman began his legal career as a law clerk to Judge Aubrey Eugene Robinson Jr. of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia from 1968 to 1969, and then for Judge Roger Robb of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1969 to 1970. He was an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia from 1970 to 1974. He was an Assistant United States Solicitor General from 1974 to 1976. He was in private practice of law at the firm of White & Case in Washington, D.C. from 1976 to 1994.

In June 1984, Friedman was elected to the American Law Institute and was elected to the ALI Council in October 1998. He began his first three-year term as ALI Secretary in 2013.

Judicial Appointment

Friedman was nominated by President Bill Clinton on March 22, 1994, to a seat vacated by Gerhard A. Gesell. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 15, 1994, and received his commission on June 16, 1994. He assumed senior status on December 31, 2009.

Notable Cases

Among Friedman's notable cases is the continuing supervision of John Hinckley Jr., the would-be assassin of President Ronald Reagan. Friedman has issued rulings that relaxed the restrictions on Hinckley by allowing him to leave the grounds of St. Elizabeths Hospital to spend more days each month visiting his mother’s home town of Williamsburg, Virginia. On July 27, 2016, it was announced that Hinckley would be allowed to permanently reside there.

Friedman also presides over In re: Rail Freight Fuel Surcharge Antitrust Litigation, an ongoing MDL (multidistrict litigation) that saw multiple appeals to the D.C. Circuit in a battle for class certification that lasted over a decade.

Speech deploring attacks on judges

Delivering the annual Judge Thomas A. Flannery Lecture on November 6, 2019, Friedman entered the politcal fray by deploriing President Donald Trump's rhetorical attacks on judges, saying they “violate all recognized democratic norms" and are starting to "undermine faith in the rule of law itself."

“We are witnessing a chief executive who criticizes virtually every judicial decision that doesn’t go his way and denigrates judges who rule against him, sometimes in very personal terms. He seems to view the courts and the justice system as obstacles to be attacked and undermined, not as a coequal branch to be respected even when he disagrees with its decisions.”

External links

• Paul L. Friedman at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.