Dabney L. Friedrich

Dabney Friedrich
Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia
Incumbent
Assumed office December 1, 2017
Appointed by	Donald Trump
Preceded by	Reggie Walton
Member of the United States Sentencing Commission
In office December 2006 – December 2016
President	George W. Bush Barack Obama
Preceded by	Michael O'Neill
Succeeded by	Henry E. Hudson (Nominee)
Personal details
Born	Patricia Dabney Langhorne (1967-06-19) June 19, 1967 Pensacola, Florida, U.S.
Spouse	Matthew Friedrich ​ (m. 2001)​
Education	Trinity University (BA) University College, Oxford (GrDip) Yale University (JD)

Dabney Langhorne Friedrich (born June 19, 1967) is a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. She previously served as a Member of the United States Sentencing Commission.

Biography

Patricia Dabney Langhorne was born on June 19, 1967 in Pensacola, Florida. She received her Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, from Trinity University, her diploma in legal studies from University College, Oxford, and her Juris Doctor from Yale Law School, where she served as a senior editor of the Yale Journal on Regulation.

She started her legal career as a law clerk for Judge Thomas F. Hogan of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. She served as an Associate Counsel to the President during the George W. Bush Administration, as Chief Crime Counsel to Senator Orrin Hatch, as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, as a trial attorney at the United States Department of Justice, and as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of California.

In 2006, Friedrich was appointed as a member of the United States Sentencing Commission, a position she held until 2016. In that capacity, she helped establish sentencing policies and practices for the federal criminal justice system by promulgating guidelines for congressional review and recommending changes in criminal statutes.

Federal judicial service

On May 8, 2017, President Trump announced his intent to nominate Friedrich to serve as a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, to a seat vacated by Reggie Walton who assumed senior status on December 31, 2015. She was formally nominated on June 7, 2017. On July 25, 2017, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on her nomination. Her nomination was reported out of committee by voice vote on September 14, 2017. On November 16, 2017, the U.S. Senate voted 93–4 to invoke cloture on Friedrich's nomination. On November 27, the Senate voted 97–3 to confirm her to the District Court. She received her judicial commission on December 1, 2017.

Notable cases

On August 13, 2018, in the case of United States v. Concord Management and Consulting LCC, she ruled against the defendant, one of 16 Russian entities charged by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, when it sought to void its indictment on the ground that his appointment to his position violated Constitutional separation of powers. In a 41-page opinion, she held that although "no statute explicitly authorizes the Acting Attorney General to make the appointment, Supreme Court and D.C. Circuit precedent make clear that the Acting Attorney General has the necessary statutory authority," "the appointment does not violate core separation-of-powers principles. Nor has the Special Counsel exceeded his authority under the appointment order by investigating and prosecuting Concord."

External links

• Dabney L. Friedrich at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
• Biography at District Court for the District of Columbia
• Dabney Friedrich at Ballotpedia