Marianne O. Battani

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Battani received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Detroit in 1966 and a Juris Doctor from Detroit College of Law in 1972. She was in private practice from 1972 to 1981. She was a judge on the Common Pleas Court of the City of Detroit in 1981, and a judge on that city's 36th District Court from 1981 to 1982. She was then a judge on the Wayne County Circuit Court until 2000.

On August 5, 1999, Battani was nominated by President Bill Clinton to a seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan vacated by Anna Diggs Taylor. Battani was confirmed by the United States Senate on May 24, 2000, and received her commission on June 2, 2000. She assumed senior status on June 9, 2012. In June 2020, she recused herself from numerous cases she was hearing due to cancer and took a leave of absence from the court.[1] She took inactive senior status on December 31, 2020, meaning that while she remains a federal judge, she will no longer hear cases or participate in the business of the court.[2][3]

Battani is notable for sentencing Alan Ralsky to more than four years in prison in November 2009. This was for crimes relating to his stock pump and dump spam activities.

She is also notable for sentencing Rene Boucher to only 30 days jail time, a fine, and 1 year probation, for physically attacking sitting Senator, Dr. Rand Paul of Kentucky. The attack left Senator Paul with multiple fractured ribs and contracted pneumonia. Prosecutors had sought a 21-month sentence.[4] That sentence was vacated on appeal to the Sixth Circuit for being "substantively unreasonable" and remanded for resentencing on September 9, 2019.[5]

• Marianne O. Battani at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.