25 Facts About Charles Fried

Charles Fried served as Solicitor General of the United States under President Ronald Reagan from 1985 to 1989.

Charles Fried was a professor at Harvard Law School and a visiting professor at Columbia Law School.

Charles Fried served on the board of the nonpartisan group, the Campaign Legal Center.

Charles Fried was born on April 15,1935, in Prague, Czechoslovakia, to Marta and Anthony Charles Fried.

Charles Fried's father was a Czech industrialist who served as a vice-president of the arms and automotive conglomerate Skoda Works.

Charles Fried described him as a "Czech patriot" and the family as having "always looked to the United States and to American democracy for inspiration".

Charles Fried argued 25 cases in front of the Supreme Court during his tenure as Solicitor General.

Charles Fried served as counsel to numerous major law firms and clients, arguing several major cases, one of the most notable being Daubert v Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, both in the Supreme Court and in the Ninth Circuit on remand.

Charles Fried held advisory roles with the Department of Transportation from 1981 to 1983 and President Ronald Reagan.

Charles Fried had previously served as Deputy Solicitor General and Acting Solicitor General.

In 1989, when Reagan left office, Charles Fried returned to Harvard Law School.

Charles Fried was appointed associate justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts in 1995 by his former student, Governor Bill Weld, and served in that role until June 1999,.

Charles Fried returned to Harvard Law School in July 1999 as a full-time member of the faculty and Beneficial Professor of Law.

Charles Fried served on the Harvard Law School faculty from 1961 until his retirement in December 2023, teaching courses on appellate advocacy, commercial law, constitutional law, contracts, criminal law, federal courts, labor law, torts, legal philosophy, and medical ethics.

Charles Fried was the author of more than ten books and over 30 journal articles.

On September 27,2010, he and Gregory Charles Fried discussed their book Because It Is Wrong: Torture, Privacy, and Presidential Power in the Age of Terror at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Charles Fried was Orgain Lecturer at the University of Texas, Tanner Lecturer on Human Values at Stanford University, and Harris Lecturer on Medical Ethics at the Harvard Medical School.

Charles Fried was a member of the National Academy of Sciences's Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Law Institute.

In September 2005, Charles Fried testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in support of the nomination of John Roberts to become Chief Justice of the United States.

On October 24,2008, despite his previous support for the presidential aspirations of Senator John McCain, Charles Fried announced that he had voted for Senator Barack Obama for President by absentee ballot.

Charles Fried cited McCain's selection of Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin as his running mate as the principal reason for his decision to vote for Obama.

In February 2011, Charles Fried testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in support of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Charles Fried was an adviser to the Harvard chapter of the Federalist Society.

Charles Fried married Anne Summerscale, an art history scholar, in 1959.

Charles Fried died on January 23,2024, at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.