Barbara Brandriff Crabb (born March 17, 1939) is a Senior

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district cou ...

of the

United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin The United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin (in case citations, W.D. Wis.) is a federal court in the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, Seventh Circuit (except for patent claims and claims agains ...

Education and career

Born in Green Bay,

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, Crabb 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 year ...

degree from the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

in 1960 and a

Bachelor of Laws Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Ch ...

from the

University of Wisconsin Law School The University of Wisconsin Law School is the professional graduate law school of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Located in Madison, Wisconsin, the school was founded in 1868. The University of Wisconsin Law School is guided by a "law in ...

in 1962. She was in private practice in Madison, Wisconsin from 1962 to 1968. She was a research assistant to George Bunn of the University of Wisconsin Law School from 1968 to 1969, and for the

American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of aca ...

Project on Minimum Standards of Criminal Justice from 1970 to 1971. She served as a

United States magistrate judge In United States federal courts, magistrate judges are judges appointed to assist U.S. district court judges in the performance of their duties. Magistrate judges generally oversee first appearances of criminal defendants, set bail, and conduc ...

for the Western District of Wisconsin from 1971 to 1979.

Federal judicial service

On July 21, 1979, Crabb was nominated by President

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1 ...

to a new seat on the

created by 92 Stat. 1629. She 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 October 31, 1979, and received her commission on November 2, 1979. She served as Chief Judge from 1980 to 1996 and again from 2001 to 2010. On March 24, 2010, Crabb took

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

when her successor, Judge

William M. Conley William Martin Conley (born May 25, 1956) is an American lawyer and a United States federal judge, United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin. Early life and education Born in Rice L ...

, was confirmed as federal judge.

Notable rulings

In 2010, Crabb ruled in a suit that the

Freedom From Religion Foundation The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) is an American nonprofit organization, which advocates for atheists, agnostics, and nontheists. Formed in 1976, FFRF promotes the separation of church and state, and challenges the legitimacy of many ...

filed in 2008 against the Obama administration that the

National Day of Prayer The National Day of Prayer is an annual day of observance held on the first Thursday of May, designated by the United States Congress, when people are asked "to turn to God in prayer and meditation". The president is required by law () to sign a ...

is unconstitutional. This ruling was reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in 2011, which found that the plaintiffs in the suit lacked

standing Standing, also referred to as orthostasis, is a position in which the body is held in an ''erect'' ("orthostatic") position and supported only by the feet. Although seemingly static, the body rocks slightly back and forth from the ankle in the s ...

to sue. In 2013, Crabb ruled in another suit, ''Freedom from Religion Foundation v. Lew'', that the Internal Revenue Code's "clergy housing allowance exclusion" or " parsonage exemption" (providing that clergy members' housing allowance were exempt from federal income tax) was unconstitutional; the Seventh Circuit vacated this ruling, finding that plaintiffs lacked standing. In 2014, Crabb ruled in the case ''

Wolf v. Walker ''Wolf v. Walker'' is a federal lawsuit filed in February 2014 that challenged Wisconsin's refusal to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples, its refusal to recognize same-sex marriages established in other jurisdictions, and related statutes ...

'' that Wisconsin's ban on

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...

(in its state constitution and statutes) was an unconstitutional violation of due process and

equal protection 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 ...

. This ruling was affirmed by the Seventh Circuit. In 2016, Crabb joined Circuit Judge

Kenneth Francis Ripple Kenneth Francis Ripple (born May 19, 1943) is a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Education and career Ripple was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He received an Artium Baccalaure ...

in finding that the high number of

wasted vote In electoral systems, a wasted vote is any vote which is not for an elected candidate or, more broadly, a vote that does not help to elect a candidate. The narrower meaning includes ''lost votes'', being only those votes which are for a losing candi ...

s created by the 2011

Wisconsin State Assembly The Wisconsin State Assembly is the lower house of the Wisconsin Legislature. Together with the smaller Wisconsin Senate, the two constitute the legislative branch of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Representatives are elected for two-year terms, ...

redistricting was unconstitutional partisan

gerrymandering In representative democracies, gerrymandering (, originally ) is the political manipulation of electoral district boundaries with the intent to create undue advantage for a party, group, or socioeconomic class within the constituency. The m ...

, over dissent by District Judge William C. Griesbach. The opinion was vacated and remanded by the United States Supreme Court on June 18, 2018.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Crabb, Barbara Brandriff 1939 births Living people Judges of the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin United States district court judges appointed by Jimmy Carter 20th-century American judges University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni University of Wisconsin Law School alumni Lawyers from Madison, Wisconsin United States magistrate judges People from Green Bay, Wisconsin 21st-century American judges 20th-century American women judges 21st-century American women judges