Stephen P. Friot (born August 14, 1947) is a
senior
Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to:
* Senior (name), a surname ...
United States district judge
The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district, which each cover o ...
of the
.
Education and career
Born in
Troy
Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in prese ...
,
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
, Friot received a
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
degree from the
University of Oklahoma
The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two Territories became the state of Oklahom ...
in 1969 and a
Juris Doctor
The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law
and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...
from the
University of Oklahoma College of Law
The University of Oklahoma College of Law is the professional graduate law school of the University of Oklahoma. It is located on the University's campus in Norman, Oklahoma.
The College of Law was founded in 1909 by a resolution of the OU Boar ...
in 1972. He was in private practice in
Oklahoma
Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...
from 1972 to 2001.
District court service
On September 4, 2001, Friot was nominated by President
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
to a seat on the
vacated by
Wayne Alley
Wayne Edward Alley (born May 18, 1932) is an inactive Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma.
Biography
Born in Portland, Oregon, Alley received an Artium Baccalaureus from ...
. Friot was confirmed by the
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and pow ...
on November 6, 2001, and received his commission on November 12, 2001. He assumed
senior status
Senior status is a form of semi-retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the Federal judiciary of the United States, federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of servi ...
on December 1, 2014.
In June 2017, Friot controversially suggested he would give a reduced sentence to a 34-year-old counterfeiting defendant if she got medically sterilized. He suggested it because she had seven children and had lost parental rights to six of them. In February 2018, he sentenced the woman to a year in federal prison, and he defended his sterilization suggestion by arguing the U.S. Supreme Court "has yet to recognize a constitutional right to bring crack- or methamphetamine-addicted babies into this world."
Russian Activities
Judge Friot has traveled and lectured extensively in the Russian Federation. Those activities include service as the U.S. judicial delegate to the Tenth International Forum on Constitutional Review, in Moscow in 2007; as a U.S. judicial delegate to the U.S.-Russia Judicial Partnership Forum in St. Petersburg (co-sponsored by the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation) in 2011 and as a U.S. judicial delegate to the Second U.S. Russian Judicial Peer-to-Peer Dialog in Washington, D.C. in 2011.
Judge Friot is the author of three articles published in the Comparative Constitutional Review (Moscow): "Judicial Independence: A Time for Patience, Persistence and Public Awareness" (64 CCR 4, 2008); "Boumediene v. Bush: The Latest Chapter in the U.S. Supreme Court's Jurisprudence at the Intersection of the War on Terror and the Constitutional Doctrine of Separation of Powers" (66 CCR 147, 2008), and "Citation of Foreign Sources of Law by the United States Supreme Court in Cases Addressing Business and Economic Issues: An Analysis of Long-Standing Practice and Contemporary Controversy" (81 CCR 23, 2011).
Judge Friot has lectured as an invited guest lecturer at the faculties of law at the Kutafin Moscow State Law University (2019), the Lobachevsky State University in Nizhny Novgorod (2011, 2012, 2014, 2017), the
Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) (2019), Moscow State University (2015 and 2019), the Pericles Law Center, Moscow (2019), the Russian State University of Justice (2019), Saratov State Law Academy (2015 - 2019), and Ulyanovsk State University (2008). He was a plenary speaker at the Conference of Judges of the Regional Court of Arbitration at the Academy of Justice, Nizhny Novgorod in 2012, at the Research to Practice Conference, Lobachevsky State University Faculty of Law, Nizhny Novgorod in 2014, and at the Second Moscow Legal Forum, Kutafin Moscow State Law University, in 2015.
Published Work
Judge Friot is the author of Containing History: How Cold War History Explains U.S.-Russia Relations, published by the University of Oklahoma Press in June, 2023. https://www.oupress.com/9780806191904/containing-history/
Honors and awards
Judge Friot was the recipient of the 2008 Global Vision Award, presented by the Oklahoma City affiliate of Sister Cities International; the Judge of the Year Award, presented by the American Board of Trial Advocates, 2004; the Oklahoma Bar Association Award of Judicial Excellence, 2012; the Journal Record Leadership in Law Award, 2016 and the Oklahoma County Bar Association Professional Service Award, 2018.
References
Sources
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Friot, Stephen P.
1947 births
21st-century American judges
Judges of the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma
Living people
United States district court judges appointed by George W. Bush