Alice M. Batchelder
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Alice Moore Batchelder (born August 15, 1944) is an American attorney and jurist. She currently is a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and was considered by President George W. Bush as a potential nominee for a U.S. Supreme Court seat that ultimately went to Justice Samuel Alito.
Batchelder was born in Wilmington, Delaware. She graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1964, where she met her future husband, William G. Batchelder. Batchelder received her Juris Doctor (law degree) from the University of Akron in 1971, and her Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree from the University of Virginia in 1988.
Batchelder briefly taught English and had a private legal practice from 1971 to 1983 in Medina, Ohio, near Cleveland. In 1983, she was appointed a judge of the United States bankruptcy court for the Northern District of Ohio.
On February 28, 1985, President Ronald Reagan appointed Batchelder to a new district judge position on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on April 3 and received her commission on April 4. On June 12, 1991, President George H.W. Bush nominated Batchelder to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to the seat vacated by Frederick Pierce Lively. She was confirmed by the Senate on November 27 and received her commission on December 2. Batchelder's service on the district court position was officially terminated on January 4, 1992, due to her appointment to the court of appeals.
On 22 December 2005, Judge Batchelder concurred with Judge Suhrheinrich on the prominent case ACLU v. Mercer County[1], in which a panel of the Sixth Circuit unanimously decided to permit the continued display of the Ten Commandments in a Kentucky courthouse. Thus she implicitly agreed with Judge Suhrheinrich that the United States Constitution does not demand "a wall of separation between church and state," and with his criticism of the ACLU's "repeated references to the 'separation of church and state'" and statement that "this extra-constitutional construct has grown tiresome."
Batchelder's husband, William G. Batchelder, is a former state court of appeals judge and a former state legislator, serving in the Ohio House of Representatives for over 30 years.
He announced his retirement from the bench as of September 30, 2005, and was reelected to the state house in 2006.[1][2]
