William Bentley Ball, KSG (October 6, 1916 - January 10, 1999) was a prominent American constitutional lawyer, Roman Catholic layman, and former US Navy officer who gained national attention for winning the precedent-setting Wisconsin Supreme Court case '' Wisconsin v. Yoder'' in a 6-1 decision which held that requiring Amish parents to send their children to secondary school violated their constitutional right to religious free exercise. He was also the vice chairman of the National Committee for Amish Religious Freedom, the group for which he won the precedent-setting case. Ball argued 9 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1967, Ball worked on his first Supreme Court case, ''

Loving v. Virginia ''Loving v. Virginia'', 388 U.S. 1 (1967), was a List of landmark court decisions in the United States, landmark civil rights decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that Anti-miscegenation laws in the United States, laws ban ...

'', entering a brief on behalf of 25 Catholic bishops on the unconstitutionality of anti-miscegenation laws. The last case that he argued and won was ''

Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills School District ''Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills School District'', 509 U.S. 1 (1993), was a case before the United States Supreme Court. Background A deaf child and his parents sued the Catalina Foothills Unified School District in Arizona because the district r ...

'' to force a school district through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to continue supplying a sign language translator for a student who transferred to a Catholic high school. Born in Rochester, New York, he graduated from Western Reserve University in 1940. Ball served with the

107th Cavalry Regiment The 107th Cavalry Regiment, Ohio Army National Guard, is a parent regiment under the U.S. Army Regimental System, with headquarters at Hamilton, Ohio. It currently consists of the 2nd Squadron, 107th Cavalry Regiment, part of the 37th Infant ...

of the Ohio Army National Guard and was a US Navy officer during World War II, serving aboard the USS ''Quincy'' and reaching the rank of lieutenant commander. He received his law degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1948. A native of Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, he died at age 82 while on vacation in Florida.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ball, William Bentley 1916 births 1999 deaths United States Navy personnel of World War II Case Western Reserve University alumni Knights of St. Gregory the Great Lawyers from Rochester, New York University of Notre Dame alumni People from Camp Hill, Pennsylvania United States Navy officers Ohio National Guard personnel