Bernard A. Friedman

On March 21, 2014, Judge 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, Judge 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.[3]

On November 20, 2018, he ruled that the Federal law against female genital mutilation (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.[4][5][6]

On August 16, 2006, he dismissed a case in which a prison inmate alleged that a guard had thrown a half cup of urine on him through the food slot in his door. Judge Friedman held that although such conduct would be "improper," it was not "of a sort repugnant to the conscience of mankind." Fackler v. Dillard, No. 06-10466, 2006 WL 2404498, at *3 (E.D. Mich. Aug. 16, 2006). Judge Friedman cited no authority for this ruling except a decision holding that pouring *water* on an inmate's head was a de minimis use of force.