Trump-Appointed Judge in Target LGBTQ+ Pride Case Defies Labels

The federal judge in Florida overseeing a conservative group’s lawsuit against Target’s LGBTQ+ Pride marketing is a Trump appointee and a member of the Federalist Society, which champions individual liberty and traditional values.

These facts describing US District Judge John Badalamenti, presented against a highly politicized backdrop, suggest a particular political leaning that could influence the way he will rule in the case. What people may not know is that the 49-year-old jurist has liberal supporters, came from a humble upbringing and considers political motivations incompatible with his role as a judge. But defying expectations and challenging assumptions is nothing new for him.

“I reached my dream to be here,” Badalamenti said in a recent interview with Bloomberg Law. “The background that I have and the experiences that I take with me provide a vantage point that you can have a less-than-typical pathway and still have the opportunity to serve as a federal judge.”

Born in 1973 in New York, Badalamenti grew up in a family that relied on the government and their church to help put food on the table. People in the Italian-American working-class community of Brooklyn’s Gravesend neighborhood where he lived were much more likely to aspire to be a firefighter or police officer rather than a lawyer, and much less a judge. But Badalamenti went to law school and practiced law, even arguing before the Supreme Court as a public defender and winning before he became a judge.

While Badalamenti has been a Federalist Society member since 2012, bipartisanship characterizes his career path. He clerked for federal appellate judges appointed by a Democrat and a Republican. After then-President Donald Trump nominated Badalamenti to serve on the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida in 2020, Badalamenti landed the support of 11 Democratic senators in addition to one independent and 43 Republicans in his confirmation vote. And when he won his case before the Supreme Court, he drew support from both conservative and liberal justices.

The biggest misconception he’s had to overcome was that a lawyer with a visual impairment can’t succeed in the practice of law. Badalamenti battled blindness in law school in the 1990s, regained his sight through cornea transplants, and now is blind in one eye and has trouble seeing with the other because of an eye infection in 2020.

The diagnosis shortly after becoming a federal judge was devastating to hear, Badalamenti said. But he found a friend and mentor in another former public defender and US district judge at the time, who later joined the Supreme Court: Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

“She mentored me through these difficult times and continues to be a tremendous friend and source of positivity,” Badalamenti said in a follow-up email.

Jackson, whom President Joe Biden appointed to the Supreme Court in 2022, declined to comment through a spokesperson, but the representative confirmed the justice’s friendship with Badalamenti.

A Budding Jurist

The judge’s journey to the bench began with summer boredom.

A young Badalamenti, having nothing better to do—his family having no money for summer camp and other activities—would take the subway alone from Brooklyn to Manhattan in the 1980s. He left a home without air conditioning to hang out in the chilled corridors of Manhattan’s federal courthouse, where his mother worked as a bookkeeper in the court reporter’s office.

He found a welcoming environment and befriended many of those who worked at the court, including Constance Motley, the first Black woman appointed to a federal judgeship and later chief judge of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. The two discussed what he was reading, like biographies of baseball great Reggie Jackson and hockey legend Wayne Gretzky.

“I was more comfortable in the courthouse than a lot of other places—not just because of the air conditioning,” Badalamenti said.

‘Worthy Opponent’

His childhood appreciation for the courts eventually led him to apply to law school. But Badalamenti faced questions about whether a life practicing law was right for him when he disclosed he had a blindness-causing eye disease. One law school admissions dean told Badalamenti he would get accommodations, though the legal profession wouldn’t be as understanding.

Undeterred, Badalamenti pursued a law degree at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where he was legally blind for the first two years of his studies and got help through a volunteer program that read his casebooks into cassette tapes. Two cornea transplant surgeries restored his vision. He finished law school and started a legal career in 1999.

A Federal Bureau of Prisons attorney job came first. He then clerked in the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit for Judges Frank Hull, a Clinton appointee, and Paul Roney, a Nixon appointee, with a brief stop in between as a Carlton Fields P.A. associate.

Badalamenti was working at the federal public defenders office for the Middle District of Florida by 2006. His biggest case there was his defense of a fisherman accused of tossing undersized fish overboard after a run-in with a federal agent enforcing conservation rules.

The case, Yates v. United States, centered on whether the fisherman tampered with evidence under the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which prohibits interfering with any “tangible object” in a federal investigation. The Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that a fish isn’t a tangible object under Sarbanes-Oxley in 2015. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts were in the majority.

Badalamenti was a “worthy opponent” in the courtroom, said Susan Rothstein-Youakim, a former federal prosecutor in Florida. She once lost a case to Badalamenti over whether another prosecutor violated a man’s constitutional right to remain silent after an arrest. The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit agreed with Badalamenti that his client was harmed and ordered a new trial in US v. O’Sullivan in 2007.

“He is committed to public service,” said Rothstein-Youakim, now a judge on the Florida Second District Court of Appeal. “In his cases, he was not just going through the motions.”

Federal Docket

Then-Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) appointed Badalamenti to the state’s Second District Court of Appeal within months of the Yates decision.

One of his most high-profile decisions was in Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services v. Dolliver over homeowners who sued the state for killing thousands of their trees to curb a citrus disease. Badalamenti was on a panel of judges who ruled in favor of the homeowners in 2019.

Trump nominated Badalamenti to serve on the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida the following year. The Senate confirmed him less than four months later on a 55-22 vote, with backing from Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Dianne Feinstein of California, among other Democrats.

“He’ll bring a unique and valuable perspective to the bench,” Feinstein said as the Senate considered his nomination in 2020. Feinstein at the time was the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which reviews judicial nominations.

His first year on the bench in 2020 included the dismissal of a dentist’s covid-related business losses lawsuit against his insurer. More recently this year, he sided with a physician group that urged him to toss a whistleblower suit claiming it billed Medicare and Medicaid for unneeded patient testing.

Still on his docket is Craig v. Target Corporation, a lawsuit filed by former Trump officials claiming the retailer misled investors about risks from LGBTQ+ Pride marketing, which an investor said cost shareholders billions of dollars after a conservative backlash. Former senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller’s America First Legal Foundation brought the case in August.

Badalamenti declined to discuss the case with Bloomberg Law. But he’s given some thought to legal battles over environmental, social and governance issues before, moderating a Federalist Society discussion earlier this year titled, “The ESG Movement & Business Regulation: Go Woke, Go Broke?” He said at the time “reasonable minds can disagree on” violations of the law around ESG matters.

Ashley Keller, one of the panelists in the discussion, said he’s unable to pinpoint Badalamenti’s views on ESG. “I have every expectation he will not prejudge the merits of the case,” said Keller, a founding partner of Keller Postman LLC.

Battling Blindness

Badalamenti will face the Target case and the rest of his docket as he continues his battle with blindness.

Poor vision has forced Badalamenti to adapt. He needs increased lighting and large monitors to do his job and no longer drives a car. He also works in Tampa closer to his home, instead of Fort Myers, where he’s assigned.

The judge said he takes his oath very seriously and can perform his duties without sacrificing the quality of his work. Blindness has benefits, like helping him listen more carefully, he said. But Badalamenti said he knows his limits.

“I am not ever going to apply to be an air traffic controller or enter a sharp-shooting contest,” he said.