Southern District of New York / Appointed 1994 / Served to 2020

Deborah A. Batts

Judge, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1994 and confirmed by voice vote, Deborah A. Batts was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. She earned a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1972. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived
1947–2020
Appointed by
William J. Clinton, 1994
Confirmed
by voice vote
Education
Radcliffe College 1969 · Harvard Law School 1972
Succeeded
Richard Owen

Federal judicial service

YearCourtAppointed byVote
1994Southern District of New York
succeeded Richard Owen
Clinton (D)Voice vote

Party letters show the appointing president’s party, not the judge’s own. A voice vote means the chamber approved aloud. No senator-by-senator tally is recorded.

Confirmation vote

Voice vote

The Senate approved this confirmation aloud, with no senator-by-senator tally recorded. Recorded roll-call votes begin in 1989.

Education

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Batts was assigned 5,059 district-court cases (1984–2019). Median time from filing to termination: 286 days across 5,058 closed cases.

Contract26%
Civil rights16%
Labor & ERISA10%
Personal-injury torts10%
Prisoner & habeas9%
Intellectual property9%
Other21%

Case assignment is from CourtListener’s PACER-derived docket records: a partial sample, not a complete caseload, reflecting the judge last assigned each case. How we count.

On appeal

Of 164 of Batts’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 110 were affirmed, 33 reversed or vacated, and 21 affirmed in part and reversed in part. This is a historical count of appellate outcomes for cases we could match, not a judgment of the judge, and not a complete record. How we count.

In our data, Batts authored 145 published opinions for the court (1994–2011). Most cited: Coleman v. Shalala (125 citations).

A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge.

Recent & notable rulings

YearCaseCitationCited
1995Coleman v. Shalala895 F. Supp. 50125
2007Fasanelli v. Heartland Brewery, Inc.516 F. Supp. 2d 317105
2009Owusu v. New York State Insurance655 F. Supp. 2d 30883
2005Philadelphia Parking Authority v. Federal Insurance385 F. Supp. 2d 28056
2005Bank of America Corp. v. Lemgruber385 F. Supp. 2d 20052
1996Choi v. Chemical Bank939 F. Supp. 30450
1996Painewebber Inc. v. Gollomp (In Re Gollomp)198 B.R. 43349
1996Leslie v. BancTec Service Corp.928 F. Supp. 34142
2005City of New York v. Cyco. Net, Inc.383 F. Supp. 2d 52638
2002Cargo Partner AG v. Albatrans Inc.207 F. Supp. 2d 8638
2000Roldan v. Artuz78 F. Supp. 2d 26035
2011Alki Partners, L.P. v. Vatas Holding GmbH769 F. Supp. 2d 47831
2010Malletier v. Apex Creative International Corp.687 F. Supp. 2d 34730
2008In Re Eugenia Vi Venture Holdings, Ltd. Litigation649 F. Supp. 2d 10529
1997Boyce v. New York City Mission Society963 F. Supp. 29028

Showing the 15 most-cited of 145 authored opinions in our data. “Cited” is inbound citations across the CourtListener corpus. Case links open the ruling’s full text (CourtListener) or its page here; read the methodology and verify against the primary source.

Questions & answers

Who appointed Deborah A. Batts?
President William J. Clinton appointed Deborah A. Batts to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1994.
Was Deborah A. Batts appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
Deborah A. Batts was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Deborah A. Batts's confirmation vote?
Deborah A. Batts was confirmed by voice vote on May 6, 1994. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was Deborah A. Batts on?
Deborah A. Batts was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Sources

Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

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25 years on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).