Bernard A. Friedman (born September 23, 1943) 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
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
,
Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
, Friedman received 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
Detroit College of Law
The Michigan State University College of Law (Michigan State Law or MSU Law) is the law school of Michigan State University, a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan. Established in 1891 as the Detroit College of Law, it was the fi ...
, now
Michigan State University College of Law
The Michigan State University College of Law (Michigan State Law or MSU Law) is the law school of Michigan State University, a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan. Established in 1891 as the Detroit College of Law, it was the fi ...
in 1968. He was in the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
, JAG Corps from 1967 to 1968, reaching the rank of lieutenant. He continued at this rank in the
United States Army Reserve
The United States Army Reserve (USAR) is a Military reserve force, reserve force of the United States Army. Together, the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard constitute the Army element of the reserve components of the United States Armed F ...
JAG Corps from 1968 to 1973. Friedman was a felony trial attorney of
Wayne County prosecutor's office, Michigan from 1969 to 1970. He was in private practice in Detroit from 1970 to 1974, and in
Southfield, Michigan from 1974 to 1982. He was a judge on the 48th district court, Michigan from 1982 to 1988.
Federal judicial service
On February 2, 1988, Friedman was nominated by President
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
to a seat on the
vacated by judge
Robert Edward DeMascio. Friedman 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 April 19, 1988, and received his commission on April 20, 1988. He served as chief judge from June 16, 2004 until 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 January 1, 2009.
When he took senior status, he was replaced by judge
Gershwin A. Drain
Gershwin Allen Drain (born January 24, 1949) is a Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
Drain received his Bachelor of Science in 1970 from Western Michigan University, wh ...
.
Notable decisions
Overturning Michigan's same-sex marriage ban
On March 21, 2014, Friedman struck down Michigan's constitutional and statutory bans on same-sex marriage. As he did not immediately issue a stay on his ruling, more than three hundred marriage licenses were issued to same-sex couples before the
Sixth Circuit Court issued a stay on Friedman's ruling the next day, pending appeals. The federal government announced it would recognize the marriages that took place during the brief period it was legal.
On August 22, 2015, Friedman presided over the wedding of the plaintiffs who he had originally ruled in favor of, after the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled two months earlier that all state bans on same-sex marriage were unconstitutional.
Overturning the Federal ban on female genital mutilation (FGM)
On November 20, 2018, he ruled that the federal law against
female genital mutilation
Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and female circumcision, is the ritual cutting or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia. The practice is found ...
(FGM) is unconstitutional because the law overreaches the federal government's enumerated powers as defined by the "necessary and proper" clause and the "Interstate commerce" clause.
References
Sources
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Friedman, Bernard A.
1943 births
Living people
Judges of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan
United States district court judges appointed by Ronald Reagan
20th-century American judges
United States Army officers
Detroit College of Law alumni
20th-century American Jews
21st-century American judges
21st-century American Jews