Frank J Battisti

Professional Background, WWII Service, and Appointment by President Kennedy

He was born to Italian immigrant parents Eugene and Jennie (Dalesandro) Battisti, in the Hazelton district of Youngstown, Ohio, a steel-production center near the Pennsylvania border. After graduating from Youngstown's East High School, Battisti served as an army combat engineer in the U.S. Army during World War II. He was later commissioned as an officer in military intelligence. Upon his return from Europe, he studied law at Ohio State University and Harvard Law School.

Battisti was a civilian attorney for the Army between 1951 and 1952, taught law at Youngstown State University from 1952 to 1954, and was assistant city law director of Youngstown between 1954 and 1958. Battisti maintained a private practice between 1952 and 1958. He served as a judge on the Mahoning County Court of Common Pleas between 1959 and 1961. Then, on September 22, 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed him as a district judge of the Northern District of Ohio. He was, at 39 years of age, the youngest federal judge in the country. Battisti became chief judge on August 3, 1969.

Notable Cases as USDC Judge

On the bench, Judge Battisti earned a reputation as a jurist who was willing to take on the most controversial cases. Some of his rulings generated heated debate, including his acquittal of eight former Ohio National Guardsmen implicated in the shooting deaths of four students at Kent State University on May 4, 1970. As his obituary in The New York Times stated, "The Kent State case came to an abrupt halt when [Judge Battisti] dismissed it on the ground that Government prosecutors had failed to prove 'beyond a reasonable doubt' that guardsmen had willfully intended to deprive the students of their rights".

He is primarily remembered, however, for his historic ruling in Robert Anthony Reed III v. Rhodes, which found that the Board of Education for the City of Cleveland public school system had violated the law by practicing racial segregation. Judge Battisti's comprehensive order for desegregation featured 14 components, including a provision reassigning students to achieve integration. This component precipitated an outcry among local opponents of "court-ordered busing." While Judge Battisti was lauded by supporters for what they termed as his courage and fortitude, he faced criticism from the Cleveland Board of Education and segments of the larger community. His landmark ruling in the Cleveland desegregation case later prompted fellow Youngstown native Judge Nathaniel R. Jones, of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, to characterize Judge Battisti as "an unlikely hero" of the civil rights movement. Judge Jones said, "He withstood much of the hostility and acrimony, bitterness and ostracism of the community in order to be true to his oath and the Constitution". Even critics of the ruling were disinclined to question Judge Battisti's motives. Colleagues described him as a deeply religious man whose abhorrence of racial injustice was profound and sincere.

In 1986, Judge Battisti ordered the deportation to Israel of Ukrainian immigrant John Demjanjuk, on the grounds that Demanjuk had misrepresented himself in his immigration application. The protracted case garnered national and international media attention. An obituary noted that upon Judge Battisti's death, "scores of cases remained on his docket, including a rehearing of the Demjanjuk case ordered by the United States Supreme Court". Demanjuk was subsequently deported, and eventually convicted of war crimes in Israel. That conviction was overturned by an Israeli appeals court. Battisti's order of deportation was upheld.

In September,1985, a panel of Federal appellate judges determined that Judge Battisti "had indeed assumed too much power and ordered him to share it with his peers". Nine members of the 11-member Northern District of Ohio contended that Battisti had assumed too much power in decision-making. "The nine had set up a system in which the majority decided court policy in May 1985", an obituary reported, "but Judge Battisti conceded that he ignored it on the ground that 'the chief judge must make the decisions'".

Personal life

Judge Battisti was married to Gloria Joy Karpinski on August 10, 1963. The couple had no children. Gloria Battisti later recalled that, in the aftermath of the Cleveland decision, the couple received death threats and required the protection of the US Marshall Service and the FBI. Gloria Battisti died at the age of 84 on January 18, 2010.

Later years and legacy

During his lifetime, Judge Battisti received many honors for his judicial service. In 1972, he was elected president of the United States Sixth District Judges Association; and the following year, he received an honorary doctor of law degree from St. Francis College, in Loretto, Pennsylvania. In 1974, he was honored with a plaque by B'nai B'rith for his commitment to civil rights. The Association of Trial Lawyers of America named him as the country's outstanding trial judge in 1978. In 1979, U.S. Representative John Ashbrook (R-OH), who opposed the desegregation plan for the Cleveland Public Schools District, introduced a resolution to the House Judiciary Committee seeking to have Judge Battisti impeached. The resolution, perceived as a political stunt, did not garner support, was not referred out of committee, and no Congressional action was taken.

Judge Battisti retired as chief judge of the Northern District of Ohio, on April 1, 1994, electing senior status. His death on October 19, 1994, received coverage in the regional and national media. Faye Kaufman, Judge Battisti's secretary at the U.S. District Court of Northern Ohio, reported that he died as a result of typhus and Rocky Mountain spotted fever, contracted during a yearly fishing trip in the West. Upon his passing, his service was officially terminated. Judge Battisti's legacy was praised by Daniel McMullen, a former director of the Office on School Monitoring and Community Relations, the entity created by the district court to oversee compliance by the Board of Education with the desegregation orders. "Battisti believed and stood for something much larger than the minutiae of constitutional doctrine", McMullen said. "He possessed the intellect to understand the sweep of history".

Judge Battisti's remains were interred at Cleveland's Calvary Cemetery.