Remembering an Icon: A Celebration of Judge Deborah Batts

By Kylee Reynolds

Picture it: New York City, June 23, 1994. It’s Pride Week. Just weeks before, the U.S. Senate confirmed Deborah Batts to a lifetime judgeship on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Never before had our country had a federal judge like Deborah Batts. In the midst of Pride celebrations, she took her oath of office, shattering the lavender ceiling and becoming Judge Batts — our country’s first ever lifetime judge who was openly LGBTQ when confirmed.

A graduate of Radcliffe College and Harvard Law School, Judge Batts clerked for Judge Lawrence Pierce on the Southern District of New York. She went on to work as an associate at Cravath, Swaine and Moore and as an assistant U.S. attorney. In 1984, she began teaching at Fordham Law School, becoming their first Black faculty member and eventually their first Black tenured professor.

When her former law professor turned senator, Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D. N.Y.), called Judge Batts to ask if she’d consider a federal judgeship during the George H.W. Bush administration, she thought it was a prank by her colleagues at Fordham. With Senator Moynihan’s encouragement, however, she completed her application to be a federal judge, making the brave choice to represent herself completely and honestly. She did not hide her LGBTQ identity. After many rounds of interviews, the Bush administration declined to nominate her to the federal bench. Years later, Judge Batts said that the administration did not move forward with her nomination because her “view of what a federal judge should be was not their view of what a federal judge should be.”

In January 1994, President Clinton nominated her to the Southern District of New York. Judge Batts’ confirmation process went through with relative ease — and she was confirmed unanimously (via voice vote) on May 6, 1994, just a few months after her nomination. Then, the following month during that celebratory Pride Week in New York City, she was officially sworn in to serve as a lifetime judge. Throughout her 26 years of service, she was a highly respected jurist with a prolific career.

Despite her swift confirmation process, though, she would be the lone openly queer federal judge for another 17 years. Reflecting on those years, Judge Batts said that “There was this lone wolf sitting up here in the Southern District of New York. I can’t tell you how happy I was when I got company.”

Judge Batts inspired generations of queer lawyers to believe that there was a place for them on the federal bench. Judge Pamela Chen — our country’s first openly LGBTQ Asian American federal lifetime judge — summed it up when she said that Judge Batts “Literally broke down the closet door and allowed the rest of us to walk through it.” And now, 23 openly LGBTQ judges are serving lifetime appointments.

Judge Batts is in good company now, with the Biden administration currently tied with the Obama administration for the most openly LGBTQ federal judges confirmed to the bench — each confirming 11 openly LGBTQ nominees during their time in office. In just one term, President Biden is poised to surpass the two-term record set by President Obama.

While we’ve made tremendous strides since Judge Batts took her oath of office 30 years ago, our courts still have a long way to go. An openly LGBTQ person has never served as a lifetime judge on nine of our 13 federal circuit courts or 77 of our 94 federal district courts. Thirty-nine states have never had an openly LGBTQ lifetime judge. And an openly transgender or non-binary person has never been nominated or confirmed to serve as a lifetime judge. You can read more about the history of openly LGBTQ federal judges in The Leadership Conference’s fact sheet — Our Federal Courts Need More Openly LGBTQ Judges.

Today we honor the legacy of Judge Deborah Batts, a trailblazer and icon who broke down the closet door, shattered the lavender ceiling, and inspired a generation of lawyers to follow in her footsteps. Thank you, Judge Batts, for making it easier for all of us who came after you to live our lives openly and honestly — and to know that all of us, no matter our identities, belong on our federal courts.

Kylee Reynolds is policy counsel for the fair courts program at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.