[Judge] Benitez was confirmed despite overwhelming opposition from the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, which rates the qualifications of judicial nominees. A substantial majority of the committee rated Benitez “not qualified” and a minority rated him as “qualified.” In 2004 testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, the ABA committee investigator reported that, “Interviewees repeatedly told me that Judge Benitez displays inappropriate judicial temperament with lawyers, litigants, and judicial colleagues; that all too frequently, while on the bench, Judge Benitez is arrogant, pompous, condescending, impatient, short-tempered, rude, insulting, bullying, unnecessarily mean, and altogether lacking in people skills.” …

On May 1, 2024, the Judicial Council of the Ninth Circuit publicly disciplined Benitez for judicial misconduct because he had unlawfully ordered a teenage girl to be shackled during her father’s sentencing hearing: “First, the shackling of a spectator at a hearing who is not engaged in threatening or disorderly behavior exceeds the authority of a district judge. Second, 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.”

Nominated in 2004 by George W. Bush. Youth tansgender suicide rates will skyrocket under this holding, but I guess that’s lockstep the GOP’s desires: more dead LGBT.