Frank J. Battisti

Frank Joseph Battisti (October 4, 1922 – October 19, 1994) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.

Battisti was born to Italian immigrant parents Eugene and Jennie (Dalesandro) Battisti, on October 4, 1922, 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 United States Army during World War II.

He was later commissioned as an officer in military intelligence.

Upon his return from Europe, he received an Artium Baccalaureus degree in 1947 from Ohio University and a Juris Doctor in 1950 from Harvard Law School.

Battisti served as assistant attorney general for the State of Ohio from 1950 to 1951.

He was an attorney adviser for the United States Army Corps of Engineers from 1951 to 1952.

He was an instructor of law at the Youngstown University Law School (now defunct) from 1952 to 1954.

He was in private practice in Youngstown from 1952 to 1958.

He was the first assistant director of law for Youngstown from 1954 to 1958.

He was director and executive secretary of the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra from 1954 to 1958.

He was a Judge of the Mahoning County, Ohio Court of Common Pleas from 1958 to 1961.

Battisti was nominated by President John F. Kennedy on August 23, 1961, to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, to a new seat authorized by 75 Stat.

80. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on September 21, 1961, and received his commission on September 22, 1961.

At the time of his appointment at age 39, he was the youngest federal judge in the country.

He served as Chief Judge from 1969 to 1990.

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.

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 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 United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, to characterize Battisti as "an unlikely hero" of the civil rights movement.

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 Battisti's motives.

Colleagues described him as a deeply religious man whose abhorrence of racial injustice was profound and sincere.

Two years earlier, in 1974, he dismissed a case against eight members of the Ohio Army National Guard accused of violating the civil rights of four Kent State University students who were shot dead in 1970.

Battisti's career featured groundbreaking—and sometimes controversial—rulings, notably his finding in 1976 that the Cleveland public school system was guilty of racial segregation.

In the 1980s, he presided over a high-profile case involving Cleveland autoworker John Demjanjuk, who was deported amid charges that he committed war crimes in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe.

During his decades as a jurist, Battisti was honored by various professional and civic organizations, but he was also a target of criticism.

He was a member of the Judicial Conference of the United States from 1981 to 1984.

In 1986, 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 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.

He assumed senior status on April 1, 1994.

His service terminated on October 19, 1994, due to his death in Cleveland.

On the bench, Battisti earned a reputation as a jurist who was willing to take on the most controversial cases.