"Deborah Batts" (April 13,1947)

Is a United States federal judge,currently serving on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.In June 1994,she was sworn as a Federal District Judge for

Manhattan,becoming the nation's first openly LGBT, African-American she took senior status on her 65th birthday.Born in Philadelphia Pennsylvania.She received an A.B. from Radcliffe College in 1969,and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1972.Deborah subsequently clerked from judge Lawrence Pierce on the Federal Court on which she now serves as judge.Deborah was assistant U.S. Attorney from 1979-1984.In 1984 she became an Associate Professor of Law at Fordham University.Deborah was a Special associate counsel to the Department of Investigations for New York City from 1990-1991.On January 27,1994,the following recommendation of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan,President Bill Clinton appointed her to a seat on the Southern District left 1989 when judge Richard Owens took senior status.Deborah was confirmed by the U.S. States Senate on May 6,1994,and received her commission on May 9,1994.She continues to serve as an adjunct at Fordham. Major cases:

1.1991 Criminal trial Cheng Young and Xingqi Fu,charged in a scheme to arrange transplant of organs taken from executed Chinese prisoners.

2.2001-04 criminal trial of Mamdouh Mahmud Salim.charged with stabbing a jail guard while awaiting trial in 1998 U.S.  embassy bombing conspiracy.
 

 3.2006 Civil Suit against former Environmental Protection Agency administration Christine Todd Whitman alleging that she misled people near the World Trade Center site about risks of toxic air pollution after September 11,2001 attacks.
4.2008 Commercial litigation between Exxon Mobil PdVSA with regards to Venezuela's expropriation of Exxon assets in the Orinoco Basin of Venezuela.
4.2009 Litigation regarding the publication of an unauthorized "sequel"to "Catcher in the Rye."Deborah ordered an injunction to stop the book to going to press.