Legal Scholar Charles Fried Dies at 88
The former solicitor general for the Reagan administration once argued against national abortion access before changing his position decades later.
Janet Knott/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
Charles Fried, a lawyer who served as the United States solicitor general under Ronald Reagan, has died at the age of 88. His passing on Tuesday was announced by Harvard Law School, where he taught for nearly 60 years. Fried was a lauded conservative legal scholar who argued for Roe v. Wade to be overturned, before pivoting later in life to defend several progressive causes. In 2021, Fried wrote an opinion column for The New York Times in which he said that “to overturn Roe would be an act of constitutional vandalism.” Fried was a Republican, but also a harsh critic of Donald Trump, and was dismayed by the far-right direction of the Republican party. He had recently defended former Harvard President Claudine Gay, saying she was the victim of an “extreme right-wing attack on elite institutions.”
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