2005 Barbara K. Olson Memorial Lecture

Judge A. Raymond Randolph of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit delivered this year's Barbara K. Olson Memorial Lecture on November 11, 2005 at the Federalist Society's National Convention.

It is well-known that Henry J. Friendly was one of the greatest judges in our nation's history. Along with Holmes and Brandeis and Learned Hand, he was certainly one of the most brilliant. What is not known is that in 1970, three years before Roe v. Wade, Judge Friendly wrote an opinion in the first abortion-rights case ever filed in a federal court. No one knows this because his opinion was never published. I have a copy of the opinion and his papers are now at the Harvard Law School, awaiting indexing.

Tonight I want to make this opinion public for the first time. ...