Daniel M. Friedman, 95, whose seven-decade legal career included service as acting solicitor general in the 1970s and an appointment by President Jimmy Carter to the federal bench, died July 6 at his home in Washington. He had a heart ailment.
In all, he wrote more than 700 opinions as a federal judge, an unusually high number, said his law clerk, Daniel McCallum.
Judge Friedman joined the Office of the Solicitor General in 1959 and was first deputy solicitor general from 1968 to 1978. He was acting solicitor general in 1977. He argued 80 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Carter appointed Judge Friedman in 1978 to be chief judge of the U.S. Court of Claims. There, Judge Friedman heard cases involving damage claims against the federal government, including government contract disputes and pay claims from federal employees.
In 1979, he presided over a decision that brought the Sioux Nation the largest government payout in any Indian claims case. The case, which dated to 1923, concerned the federal government’s seizure in the 19th century of land in South Dakota’s Black Hills that was sacred to the tribe.
The Court of Claims awarded $106 million to the Sioux Nation. The award was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1980. The Sioux have refused to accept the money, however; they say that if they do, they will lose the tribe’s’ rights to the Black Hills land.
When the Court of Claims was merged with the U.S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals in 1982, Judge Friedman was given seniority in the newly created Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Daniel Mortimer Friedman was born Feb. 8, 1916, in New York City. He was a 1937 government and history graduate of Columbia University, where he was assistant managing editor of the student newspaper.
According to a 2008 Columbia publication, he told his mother he wanted to pursue a career in journalism, and she reacted with horror. She had an image of her son with a cigar between his fingers and a fedora tilted on his head. She arranged for him to have dinner with his uncle, a lawyer.
After graduating in 1940 from Columbia’s law school, he served in the Army in Europe during World War II. After his discharge, he joined the legal staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission. He later worked at the Justice Department’s antitrust division.
His first wife, Leah Lipson, died in 1969. His second wife, Elizabeth Mueller Ellis, died in 2002.
Survivors include four stepchildren from his second marriage, Elizabeth “Buffy” Ellis of Bethesda, Jonathan Ellis of New York, Benjamin Ellis of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Nancy Ellis of Dayton, Ore.; and nine grandchildren.
Judge Friedman was granted senior status in 1989. While many judges in that position reduce their workload significantly, he continued to hear cases on the federal circuit and other U.S. circuit courts of appeals around the country. He wrote his last opinion, on the taxation of imported wheat from Canada, a few months ago.
“He’s the best of a disappearing species,” Columbia University law professor Richard B. Stone said in the 2008 school publication. “He is also one of the few government lawyers whose talent was recognized and rewarded with a top judicial post.”
On the bench, Judge Friedman was known for the breadth of cases he heard, for his clear and concise opinions and for his prim devotion to bow ties. He owned an array of colorful bow ties and kept two spares in his desk in case anyone wanted to learn the curious art of the bow.
