Public Misled on Air Quality After 9/11 Attack, Judge Says

Christie Whitman, when she led the Environmental Protection Agency, made "misleading statements of safety" about the air quality near the World Trade Center in the days after the Sept. 11 attack and may have put the public in danger, a federal judge found yesterday.

The pointed criticism of Mrs. Whitman came in a ruling by the judge, Deborah A. Batts of Federal District Court in Manhattan, in a 2004 class action lawsuit on behalf of residents and schoolchildren from downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn who say they were exposed to air contamination inside buildings near the trade center.

The suit, against Mrs. Whitman, other former and current E.P.A. officials and the agency itself, charges that they failed to warn people of dangerous materials in the air and then failed to carry out an adequate cleanup. The plaintiffs are seeking monetary damages and want the judge to order a thorough cleaning.

In her ruling, Judge Batts decided not to dismiss the case against Mrs. Whitman, who is being sued both as former administrator of the E.P.A. and as an individual.

As a legal matter, the ruling established that the suit's charges were well-documented and troubling enough to meet a legal standard to go forward. But Judge Batts also criticized Mrs. Whitman's performance in the days after the collapse of the towers unleashed, by the E.P.A.'s estimates, one million tons of dust on lower Manhattan and beyond.

In a statement yesterday, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton called the E.P.A.'s conduct "outrageous."

"New Yorkers were depending on the federal government to provide them with accurate information about the air they were breathing," she said. "I continue to believe that the White House owes New Yorkers an explanation."

Deborah A. Batts

United States District Court for the
Southern District of New York
New York, New York

Born: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-April 13, 1947
Education: Radcliffe College (B.A. 1969); Harvard Law School (J.D. 1972).
Judge Batts was appointed to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on May 9, 1994 by President Clinton.

After graduating from law school, Judge Batts was a Law Clerk to the Honorable Lawrence W. Pierce of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. After her clerkship, she practiced with the New York law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore from 1973 until 1979.

In 1979, Judge Batts returned to government work. From 1979 through 1984, she served as an Assistant United States Attorney with the Criminal Division of the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. From 1990 to 1991, Judge Batts was a Special Associate Counsel with the Department of Investigation of the City of New York.

Batts also added teaching to her distinguished list of career achievements. From 1984 to 1994, she was an Associate Professor at the Fordham University School of Law. In addition, Judge Batts served on the faculty of the Corporation Counsel Trial Advocacy Program from 1988 to 1993.

Judge Batts is a member of numerous professional organizations including the New York City Bar Association, the Second Circuit Federal Bar Council, the Metropolitan Black Bar Association, and the Lesbian and Gay Law Association of Greater New York. Her community affiliations include service on the Board of Trustees for the Cathedral School.

Gay legal groups lauded Judge Batts' appointment as a "turning point" in attitudes towards gay men and lesbians. Lawyers practicing before Judge Batts have found her intellectually curious, thoughtful and fair.

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