Barry Friedman
Jacob D. Fuchsberg Professor of Law
Barry Friedman is the Jacob D. Fuchsberg Professor of Law and Affiliated Professor of Politics at NYU, where he also founded and directs the Policing Project. He has written, taught, and litigated about constitutional law, criminal procedure, and policing for several decades. His book The Will of the People challenged conventional wisdom about the counter-majoritarian nature of judicial review. Before joining NYU in 2000, he was a professor at Vanderbilt Law School. The Policing Project at NYU works to bring democratic accountability and equity to policing and public safety.
Teaching Style
Professor Friedman is a dynamic and passionate teacher who uses the Socratic method to challenge students' assumptions about judicial review, policing, and constitutional law. He cold-calls students with probing questions and is particularly skilled at drawing out the tensions between democratic governance and judicial power. His classes are energetic and fast-paced, and he brings a practitioner's sensibility from his work on policing reform to the classroom.
Cold Call Tips
- 1Understand the counter-majoritarian difficulty and the debates about the legitimacy of judicial review — this is central to Friedman's scholarship
- 2Be prepared to discuss the Fourth Amendment and policing with attention to both doctrine and empirical realities of police practices
- 3Know the structure of the federal court system and jurisdictional doctrines — he expects precision on procedural questions
- 4Think about the relationship between public opinion and constitutional decision-making — Friedman sees them as deeply intertwined
Areas of Expertise
Education
- J.D., Georgetown University Law Center
- B.A., University of Chicago
Notable Publications
- The Will of the People: How Public Opinion Has Influenced the Supreme Court and Shaped the Meaning of the Constitution (2009)
- Unwarranted: Policing Without Permission (2017)
Research Interests
More Professors at NYU School of Law
Constitutional Law, Antidiscrimination Law, Law and Literature
Criminal Law, Administrative Law, Constitutional Law, Sentencing
Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Election Law, Employment Law
Constitutional Law, Family Law, Criminal Law, Reproductive Rights
Constitutional Law, Election Law, Voting Rights, Separation of Powers
Criminal Law, Racial Justice and the Law, Eighth Amendment, Capital Punishment