Tribe says the incident should not be allowedto overshadow Fried's legal talents.
"He is a person with a temper from time totime," Tribe says, "but I think he is capable ofbeing entirely judicious."
"I don't think that anyone is perfect, and hehas made mistakes,' Tribe says. "My experience ofhim as a colleague for over a quarter of a centuryleads me to think that he will make an excellentjudge."
Frankfurter Professor of Law Alan M.Dershowitz, another colleague of Freid's, alsobelieves Fried is capable of handling a positionon the SJC.
"Charles Fried would be a wonderful justice,"Dershowitz says. "He is a true libertarian whounderstands the line between free speech andviolence and who values the Bill of Rights overpolitical correctness."
Credentials
While presenting his case to the Governor'sCouncil for Fried's nomination, Weld called Frieda "legal giant" and "intellectual powerhouse."
Weld's nominee received undergraduate degreesfrom Princeton University in 1956 and OxfordUniversity in 1958. In 1960, he received aMaster's degree from Oxford University and a lawdegree from Columbia University.
He joined the Harvard faculty as an assistantprofessor of law in 1961, became a full professorin 1965 and was appointed to an endowed chair1981.
Fried teaches courses on constitutional law andthe federal courts, and writes about legalphilosophy and constitutional law.
According to the Harvard Faculty booklet,Fried's "representative publications" are Orderand Law: Arguing the Reagan evolution,published in 1991, and Contract as Promise,published in 1981.
The Process
Fried's confirmation will be debated and votedupon by the Massachusetts Governor's Council inthe next few months.
Dorothy Kelly-Gay, chair of the council, saysshe would like to go to all the districts inMassachusetts to gauge public opinion before thecouncil holds its final vote.
While taking the confirmation process "on theroad," is not unprecedented, Kelly-Gay says it isstill unusual.
But she says her desire to visit each districtbefore deciding how to vote on Fried'sconfirmation was a campaign promise she made whenshe ran for election to the council.
"[It has] nothing to do with the professor; ithas everything to do with the process," she says.
She says she is not sure how the councilmembers will vote on Fried's confirmation.
"I've read that there's a lot of controversyover it," she says. "I'd like to wait and see howhe stands up to the council and its question