In
2023,
Judge
Roger
Benitez
of
the
Southern
District
of
California
ordered
his
marshals
to
handcuff
a
crying
child
attending
her
father’s
hearing
and
place
her
in
the
jury
box.
Then
he
asked
the
13-year-old
girl
if
she
liked
the
cuffs
and
told
her
she
was
“an
awfully
cute
young
lady.”
He
then
revoked
her
father’s
parole
and
sentenced
him
to
prison,
a
ruling
swiftly
reversed
by
the
next
judge
who
heard
the
case,
who
decided
that
the
man
having
to
watch
his
daughter
psychologically
tortured
by
a
federal
judge
was
probably
punishment
enough.
Now
he’s
retiring.
Benitez
earned
a
formal
complaint
over
the
handcuffing
incident,
which
the
Ninth
Circuit
was
forced
to
announce
publicly
after
Above
the
Law
reported
on
it.
After
sitting
on
the
complaint
for
over
a
year
to
let
the
heat
die
down,
the
Judicial
Council
found
“the
shackling
of
a
spectator
at
a
hearing
who
is
not
engaged
in
threatening
or
disorderly
behavior
exceeds
the
authority
of
a
district
judge,”
and
that
“creating
a
spectacle
out
of
a
minor
child
in
the
courtroom
chills
the
desire
of
friends,
family
members,
and
members
of
the
public
to
support
loved
ones
at
sentencing.”
Despite
these
serious
findings,
Benitez
received
gentle
slap
on
the
wrist
with
a
wet
noodle.
He
responded
to
his
punishment
by
telling
Reuters
that
he
disagreed
with
it.
Well,
at
least
he
learned
absolutely
nothing!
But
when
he
wasn’t
traumatizing
children
directly,
Benitez
was
traumatizing
them
indirectly
as
one
of
the
federal
judiciary’s
most
enthusiastic
supporters
of
the
school
shooting
industrial
complex.
Benitez
used
his
senior
status
to
pursue
ideological
assaults
on
the
will
of
California
voters,
routinely
striking
down
gun
regulations
in
cases
cynically
routed
to
his
courtroom.
A
rule
allowing
one
party
to
request
(without
the
other
party
having
a
right
to
object)
that
cases
be
transferred
to
a
judge
hearing
a
matter
involving
“similar”
issues,
giving
gun
advocates
a
fast
track
to
the
gun
manufacturing
lobby
friendly
Benitez
once
he
took
on
his
first
gun
rights
case.
From
this
perch,
he
struck
down
everything
from
background
check
legislation
and
large-capacity
magazine
limits.
Neither,
of
course,
prevents
someone
from
exercising
their
Second
Amendment
rights
to
possess
a
firearm
in
a
regulated
space,
but
both
did
make
it
harder
for
wingnuts
to
carry
out
high-impact
violent
rampages.
Benitez
also
compared
AR-15s
to
“Swiss
Army
knives,”
which
is
accurate
assuming
someone
affixes
a
bayonet
and
a
corkscrew.
As
a
senior
status
judge,
his
retirement
does
not
give
the
administration
a
vacancy
to
fill.
One
might
think
that
even
those
who
appreciated
his
rulings
might
shy
away
from
celebrating
a
guy
known
for
handcuffing
innocent
kids,
but
you’d
be
wildly
underestimating
how
much
conservatives
care
about
guns
more
than
kids.
Remember,
when
Lott
says
Benitez
made
“a
safer
and
better
country,”
a
specific
statute
at
issue
was
“maybe
we
run
a
check
to
make
sure
we’re
not
selling
ammunition
to
someone
who
just
escaped
a
psych
ward.”
If
your
definition
of
America’s
“safety”
is
ensuring
that
someone
who
scribbles
“I
am
the
angel
of
death…
the
time
of
purification
is
at
hand”
all
over
their
walls
can
buy
a
thousand
rounds
of
5.56
like
they’re
picking
up
bubble
gum,
then
Benitez
was
definitely
your
guy.
Benitez
once
wrote
“Guns
and
ammunition
in
the
hands
of
criminals,
tyrants
and
terrorists
are
dangerous;
guns
in
the
hands
of
law
abiding
responsible
citizens
are
necessary.”
And
yet,
he
struck
down
statutes
narrowly
tailored
to
keep
guns
out
of
the
hands
of
criminals
and
terrorists
while
not
imposing
any
more
than
a
clerical
wait
upon
law-abiding
citizens.
It’s
almost
like
all
the
sanctimonious
rights
talk
is
just
a
contrivance
to
make
sure
no
one
puts
a
dent
in
Winchester’s
profits.
Points
for
honesty
though.
While
most
would
applaud
a
judge
for
their
commitment
to
“the
Constitution”
or
“rule
of
law”
—
however
disingenuous
those
claims
might
be
—
at
least
someone
is
willing
to
just
admit
Benitez
was
a
gun
rights
movement
activist
with
a
robe.
Also,
you’ve
got
to
love
injecting
a
little
sacrilegious
idolatry!
But
it’s
not
fair
to
reduce
Benitez’s
whole
career
to
being
a
shill
for
the
gun
lobby.
Yes,
he’s
also
the
judge
from
Mirabelli,
stripping
away
a
law
protecting
children
from
having
teachers
inform
parents
about
a
child’s
LGBTQ+
identity.
While
opponents
of
the
law
cast
it
as
infringing
on
parents’
rights
or
even
religious
rights,
the
statute
was
more
about
keeping
teachers
from
outing
students
against
their
will
since
parents
themselves
remain
one
of
the
most
dangerous
threats
to
LGBTQ+
children.
And
it
wasn’t
just
protecting
LGBTQ+
children,
because
the
law
also
endeavored
to
keep
teachers
with
no
real
qualifications
in
this
area
from
snitching
to
parents
because
they
thought
Johnny
playing
dolls
at
recess
was
the
start
of
something.
Handcuffing
a
crying
child
as
a
prop
to
traumatize
both
her
and
her
father
really
was
more
of
a
feature
than
a
bug.
Children
were,
consistently,
the
victims
of
Judge
Benitez’s
time
on
the
bench.
They
were
a
population
to
be
routinely
sacrificed
for
his
preferred
personal
politics,
dressed
up
with
obligatory
references
to
what
the
Framers
would’ve
thought.
So
maybe
his
fans
are
right,
and
Benitez
has,
at
last,
finally
made
America
a
safer
and
better
country.
By
retiring.
Earlier:
Federal
Judge
Handcuffs
Crying
13-Year-Old
Girl
Attending
Father’s
Hearing
Formal
Complaint
Lodged
Against
Federal
Judge
For
Handcuffing
Crying
13-Year-Old
Girl
Judge
Given
Slap
On
Wrist
After
Handcuffing
Innocent,
Crying
Child
Joe
Patrice is
a
senior
editor
at
Above
the
Law
and
co-host
of
Thinking
Like
A
Lawyer.
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free
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