Three gun cases turned Roger Benitez into a polarizing figure: lionized by the firearms lobby as a hero unwinding onerous regulations, vilified by advocates for stricter gun laws who say his interpretation of the 2nd Amendment is alarming and extreme.
To many gun control advocates and victims of gun violence, the last decision in particular
In 2003, the American Bar Assn. gave Benitez a rare “not qualified” rating when President George W. Bush nominated him for the lifetime district court position. “His opinions suggest a very inflated view of the right to guns and a very deflated view of the right of Americans to live,” said Jonathan Lowy, the chief counsel of Brady, the nonprofit against gun violence. “His decisions are simply wrong — and in some cases, read like they were written for Fox News, rather than for a judicial opinion.”But U.S. District Court Chief Judge Dana Sabraw described his colleague as “a man of unquestioned integrity.
Macias said his investigation, which included confidential conversations with 23 judges and 44 lawyers, yielded “more negative comments” than any of his 60 previous investigations.Benitez was deemed not qualified for the job by a substantial majority of the ABA’s committee on the federal judiciary — an exceedingly rare circumstance; since 1989, the group has found only about 1% of more than 1,600 candidates to be not qualified.
“I’ve never seen someone so proactively and repeatedly encourage defendants to say nothing, or really limit what they say,” Peterson said. “I’ve never seen another judge do that.”At one sentencing in 2017, attorneys entering Benitez’s courtroom were surprised to see an easel set up at the front. The hearing, for a Mexican man convicted of sex trafficking, was necessary because judges in the U.S.
In 2017, he was assigned the large-capacity magazine lawsuit. Then came three more 2nd Amendment cases in the next two years, because of a court rule that allows either side to request that their case be heard by a judge with previous experience on the topic.,” filing 2nd Amendment cases in Benitez’s district in an effort to get a more favorable hearing.
A gun owner himself, Benitez has made rulings that have taken aim at California’s decades-old attempts by lawmakers and voters to toughen gun laws. He deemed the state’s assault-weapon ban — signed into law in 1989 by Republican Gov. George Deukmejian — a “failed experiment.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found no “causal link” between vaccinations and deaths.Over a 10-year stretch in the middle of Benitez’s career, 14% of his decisions were reversed or vacated at the 9th Circuit, according to a Westlaw analysis.
Many of the motions asked for compassionate release from prison during the COVID-19 pandemic. Several defendants asked the 9th Circuit to order Benitez to rule on their motions or to compel him to explain why he had not.
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