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

Senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.

Education and career

Born in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Crabb received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1960 and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1962. She was in private practice in

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

, 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 Project on Minimum Standards of Criminal Justice from 1970 to 1971. She served as a United States magistrate judge for the Western District of Wisconsin from 1971 to 1979.

Federal judicial service

On July 21, 1979, Crabb was nominated by President Jimmy Carter to a new seat on the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin created by 92 Stat. 1629. She was confirmed by the United States Senate 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 when her successor, Judge William M. Conley, was confirmed as federal judge.

Notable rulings

In 2010, Crabb ruled in a suit that the Freedom From Religion Foundation filed in 2008 against the

Obama administration Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. A Democrat from Illinois, Obama took office following a decisive victory over Republican ...

that the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional. This ruling was reversed by the

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (in case citations, 7th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the courts in the following districts: * Central District of Illinois * Northern District of Ill ...

in 2011, which found that the plaintiffs in the suit lacked standing to sue. In 2013, Crabb ruled in another suit, ''Freedom from Religion Foundation v. Lew'', that the

Internal Revenue Code The Internal Revenue Code (IRC), formally the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, is the domestic portion of federal statutory tax law in the United States, published in various volumes of the United States Statutes at Large, and separately as Title 26 ...

's "clergy housing allowance exclusion" or "

parsonage A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of religion. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, parsonage, rectory or vicarage. Function A clergy house is typically own ...

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

due process Due process of law is application by state of all legal rules and principles pertaining to the case so all legal rights that are owed to the person are respected. Due process balances the power of law of the land and protects the individual pers ...

and equal protection. This ruling was affirmed by the Seventh Circuit. In 2016, Crabb joined Circuit Judge Kenneth Francis Ripple in finding that the high number of wasted votes created by the 2011 Wisconsin State Assembly redistricting was unconstitutional partisan gerrymandering, over dissent by District Judge

William C. Griesbach William C. Griesbach (born January 24, 1954) is a senior judge and former chief judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. He was appointed to the federal court in 2002, by President George W. Bush, after h ...

. 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