Joseph Francis Bataillon (born October 3, 1949) is a senior United States district judge of the

United States District Court for the District of Nebraska The United States District Court for the District of Nebraska (in case citations, D. Neb.) is the federal district court whose jurisdiction is the state of Nebraska. Court offices are in Omaha and Lincoln. Appeals from the District of Nebraska ...

Education and career

Born in

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city ...

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

, Bataillon received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree from

Creighton University Creighton University is a private Jesuit research university in Omaha, Nebraska. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1878, the university is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. In 2015 the university enrolled 8,393 graduate and undergra ...

in 1971 and a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

from

Creighton University School of Law Creighton University School of Law, located in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, is a component of the Jesuit Creighton University. According to Creighton's official 2019 ABA-required disclosures, 75% of the Class of 2019 obtained full-time, long-t ...

in 1974. Bataillon was a deputy

public defender A public defender is a lawyer appointed to represent people who otherwise cannot reasonably afford to hire a lawyer to defend themselves in a trial. Several countries provide people with public defenders, including the UK, Hungary and Singapore, ...

, Douglas County, Nebraska from 1974 to 1980. He was in private practice in Omaha from 1980 to 1997.

Federal judicial service

On January 7, 1997, Bataillon was nominated by President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

to a seat on the

vacated by Lyle E. Strom. Bataillon was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

on September 11, 1997, and received his commission on September 18, 1997. He served as chief judge of the District from 2004 to 2011. He assumed

senior status Senior status is a form of semi-retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the Federal judiciary of the United States, federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of servi ...

on October 3, 2014.

Notable case

In 2003-05, Bataillon heard ''

Citizens for Equal Protection v. Bruning ''Citizens for Equal Protection v. Bruning'', 455 F.3d 859 (8th Cir. 2006), was a federal lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska and decided on appeal by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circ ...

'', a federal constitutional challenge to

Nebraska Initiative Measure 416 Nebraska Initiative 416 was a 2000 ballot initiative that amended the Nebraska Constitution to make it unconstitutional for the state to recognize or perform same-sex marriage, same-sex civil unions or domestic partnerships. The referendum was appr ...

, a voter initiative constitutional amendment that prohibited Nebraska from recognizing same-sex marriages or unions. In November, 2005, Bataillon ruled that Initiative Measure 416 was unconstitutional under the

Equal Protection Clause The Equal Protection Clause is part of the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The clause, which took effect in 1868, provides "''nor shall any State ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal ...

, the

First Amendment First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

, and the

Contract Clause Article I, Section 10, Clause 1 of the United States Constitution, known as the Contract Clause, imposes certain prohibitions on the states. These prohibitions are meant to protect individuals from intrusion by state governments and to keep ...

's prohibition on

bills of attainder A bill of attainder (also known as an act of attainder or writ of attainder or bill of penalties) is an act of a legislature declaring a person, or a group of people, guilty of some crime, and punishing them, often without a trial. As with attai ...

. Bataillon became the first judge in the U.S. to invalidate a state marriage amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman on federal constitutional grounds. In July, 2006, the

United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (in case citations, 8th Cir.) is a United States federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the following United States district courts: * Eastern District of Arkansas * Western Dis ...

reversed his decision on all three arguments and held that "laws limiting the state-recognized institution of marriage to heterosexual couples ... do not violate the Constitution of the United States." In 2015, the Eighth Circuit's ruling was invalidated by the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

's decision in ''

Obergefell v. Hodges ''Obergefell v. Hodges'', ( ), is a landmark LGBT rights case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protect ...

''.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bataillon, Joseph 1949 births Living people Creighton University alumni Judges of the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska Lawyers from Omaha, Nebraska United States district court judges appointed by Bill Clinton Creighton University School of Law alumni 20th-century American judges 21st-century American judges Public defenders