Freeman was born Beth Ann Labson in 1953, in Washington, D.C.[1] She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1976 from the University of California at Berkeley.

From 1987 to the present, she has been affiliated with Peninsula Temple Beth El, a Reform Judaism synagogue where, prior to 2012, she served the community in various official capacities.

[3] On December 22, 2020, Judge Freeman handed down a nationwide injunction blocking enforcement of President Donald Trump's executive order barring federal contractors from training employees on various concepts rooted in critical race theory, finding the measure cuts into the constitutional freedoms of LGBTQ advocacy groups who filed a legal challenge.

[7] In her ruling, Judge Freeman wrote that the administration's directive to federal agencies to cancel training contracts involving “critical race theory,” “white privilege,” “intersectionality,” “systemic racism,” “positionality,” “racial humility,” and “unconscious bias” was likely unconstitutional.

[8] On September 30, 2022, Judge Freeman issued a partial dismissal on two lawsuits (consolidated into one) against San Jose's gun control ordinance (which was enacted in response to the 2021 San Jose shooting) with leave to amend in part and without leave to amend in part.