Anita B. Brody

Anita Jane Blumstein Brody (born May 25, 1935) is a United States federal judge.
Brody was born in Brooklyn, New York City. She received a B.A. from Wellesley College in 1955, and a J.D. from Columbia Law School in 1958. Judge Brody was a deputy assistant state attorney general in New York from 1958 to 1959. From 1973 to 1981 she was in private practice in Philadelphia. In 1981 Judge Brody was appointed by Pennsylvania Governor Richard Thornburgh, and then elected a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, which is part of the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area.
Brody then became a federal judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Brody was nominated by President George H.W. Bush on November 22, 1991, to a new seat created as a result of the passage of 104 Stat. 5089. She was confirmed by the United States Senate on September 2, and received her commission as a District Court Judge on October 2, 1992.
Judge Brody presided over the case to decide whether a group of lawsuits by former NFL players against the NFL would be heard in federal court or whether the cases would be heard by an arbitrator in accordance with the league's collective bargaining agreement, as the league has requested. The players believe if the lawsuits remain in federal court, it will be easier to discover what the NFL did or did not know through the discovery process. In an April 9, 2013 hearing, the NFL's lawyer, Paul Clement, admitted it would be difficult for the NFL to make the argument that an arbitrator should hear the cases of former players who never signed the collective bargaining agreement. The medical condition chronic traumatic encephalopathy (sometimes referred to simply as CTE) resulting from concussions is a factor in the suits.