The judge upending California’s gun laws: ‘Blessed’ jurist or ‘stone-cold ideologue’?
LA TimesFor nearly two decades, U.S. District Judge Roger T. Benitez was a low-profile jurist handling routine immigration and drug cases in San Diego federal court. One meme reads, “Blessed are thee among jurists and blessed the fruit of your gavel.” A sticker depicting U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez as a saint is sold at Hiram’s Guns/Firearms Unknown in El Cajon. One of the male prosecutors later described Benitez as a “paragon of civility.” Hartzler wrote that the judge’s actions were a “calculated attempt to humiliate and degrade” her because she had prevailed repeatedly on appeal. Gun control advocates have argued that gun-rights groups have used that rule to “judge shop,” filing 2nd Amendment cases in Benitez’s district in an effort to get a more favorable hearing. George Deukmejian — a “failed experiment.” California’s assault-weapon ban violates the 2nd Amendment in part because militias could be forced to settle for “less than ideal” weapons rather than the “ideal” AR-15 rifle, Benitez wrote.
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Judge rules California background check, anti-importation rules for ammo unconstitutional
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Thanks to the Supreme Court, California gun cases hinge more on history than modern threats
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Roger Benitez: Meet the federal judge who overturned California’s decades-old assault weapons ban
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US judge overturns California’s ban on assault weapons
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