Judge donates Supreme Court collection to IU

Judge Ezra “Zeke” Friedlander of the Indiana 2nd District Court of Appeals has been collecting historic documents and signatures of Supreme Court justices and other historical figures for about 15 years.

He recently decided to share his collection, which hung in his office for many years, with the IU Maurer School of Law.

“I’m a graduate of IU’s history department, I’m a lawyer and a judge and I collect other kinds of memorabilia, so when I ran across these kinds of documents they sort of peaked my interest,” Friedlander said.

“I asked if the law school would like the documents, and they indicated that they would.”

Friedlander graduated from IU with a B.A. in history and government in 1962 and received his J.D. from the law school in 1965. He then practiced law for 27 years and was appointed to the Court of Appeals by former governor Evan Bayh in 1993.

Friedlander is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board of the College of Arts and Sciences, the Maurer School’s Academy of Law Alumni Fellows and was formerly president of the school’s Alumni Board. He has endowed the Law School with
a scholarship.

“We are honored and delighted that Judge Friedlander chose to donate his collection to the IU Maurer School of Law,” Dean Lauren Robel said in a prepared statement.

“The collection gives us all an opportunity to feel directly connected to the rich history of the American legal profession.”

Most of the items are on display on the second floor of the Law Library, although one of the items, a pleading signed by John Marshall in 1785, is currently displayed inside the Dean’s Suite in the main law building.

These items are displayed in five frames, each frame containing one or more documents, photographs or signatures.

The items will be on permanent public display in the School of Law. Although Friedlander was not a part of the decision to keep them on display, he said he was glad that they were open to the public.

“The question, then, is who else is going to enjoy them. I enjoyed them for a while; then I wanted to pass it on,” he said. “I’m pleased they are there for public view. I’m pleased people are interested in seeing them.”