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Richard D. Bennett | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Senior Judge of theUnited States District Court for the District of Maryland | |
| Assumed office June 30, 2021 | |
| Judge of theUnited States District Court for the District of Maryland | |
| In office April 10, 2003 – June 30, 2021 | |
| Appointed by | George W. Bush |
| Preceded by | Frederic N. Smalkin |
| Succeeded by | Deborah Boardman |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1947-08-12)August 12, 1947 (age 78)[1] |
| Political party | Republican[2] |
| Education | University of Pennsylvania (BA) University of Maryland School of Law (JD) |
Richard D. Bennett (born August 12, 1947) is aUnited States Senior District Judge of theUnited States District Court for the District of Maryland. Born in Maryland, Bennett is a graduate ofSevern School, theUniversity of Pennsylvania, and theUniversity of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law.[3][4][5] He previously served as anAssistant United States Attorney and theUnited States Attorney for Maryland, and was awarded multiple commendations for his service.[3] In private practice, Bennett was a partner in a major Maryland law firm, where he specialized inwhite collar criminal defense. Appointed to the federal bench in 2003, he tooksenior status in 2021.[4][6][7] While maintaining an active trial docket in the District of Maryland, Bennett has increasingly beensitting by designation with theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.[4]
Born inBaltimore, Maryland, Bennett grew up inSeverna Park near Annapolis, and attendedSevern School. In 1969, he received aBachelor of Arts degree from theUniversity of Pennsylvania, where he majored inPolitical Science with a study in the Russian language.[3][7] At Penn, he was selected to theSphinx Senior Honor Society, one of the oldest societies at the University, and was elected as one of four officers for his graduating class.[4] Following a period of military service, Bennett returned home to Maryland, and pursued the practice of law. In 1973, he received aJuris Doctor from theUniversity of Maryland School of Law, where he served as a member of theMaryland Law Review and won academic awards.[3][5][7]
In 1976, Bennett was appointed to serve as anAssistant United States Attorney of the District of Maryland. He remained in that position until 1981, when he returned to private practice.[3] In 1991, Bennett was unanimously confirmed by theUnited States Senate as theUnited States Attorney for the District of Maryland.[3] In that position he received the Outstanding Service Award from the Maryland State's Attorneys Association, and an award from theGovernor of Maryland for outstanding contributions in the field of victim rights.[3]
In 1993, Bennett returned to private practice as a partner at the Maryland law firm of Miles and Stockbridge, PC, where he spearheaded that firm's white collar criminal defense and government investigations practice.[3][5][6][8] Bennett would remain at the firm until his appointment to the federal bench in 2003.[3] During his tenure, Bennett defended several high-profile clients, including DemocraticState DelegateTony E. Fulton, who was acquitted in 2000 of federal fraud and conspiracy charges.[5][8] He was also retained by theUnited States House of Representatives asSpecial Counsel to investigate foreign campaign contributions in the1996 United States Presidential Election.[4] He was recognized by a respected national publication as one of the "Best Lawyers in America."[4]
In addition to his active federal trial practice, Bennett was a leading figure in the Maryland Republican Party.[6] He was the 1994 Republican candidate forAttorney General of Maryland and the 1998 Republican candidate forLieutenant Governor, having been selected byEllen R. Sauerbrey as her running mate in her gubernatorial campaign.[8] He was selected as a delegate to theRepublican National Conventions in 1988, 1996, and 2000.[3] At a Maryland state Republican Party convention in 1998, he was elected by acclamation to serve as the Chairman of theMaryland Republican Party.[3][8][2] In that capacity, he represented Maryland on the Republican National Committee until 2000, when he resigned out of his determination to represent Democratic State Delegate Tony E. Fulton in a high-profile federal corruption case.[9]
Outside of his legal practice, Bennett served over 20 years in theUnited States Army Reserve and theMaryland National Guard, and is aMajor in the Retired Reserve. During his service, he received the Maryland Commendation Medal for Outstanding Service, the Maryland Distinguished Service Cross for Service Beyond the Call of Duty, and the Meritorious Service Medal.[3] Bennett is also a Life Fellow of theAmerican Bar Foundation and theMaryland State Bar Foundation. He has served on the board of the Kennedy-Krieger Institute for Disabled Children, and the Board of Trustees of Severn School, where he has been inducted to that school’s athletic Hall of Fame, and received the school’s Distinguished Alumnus Award. He has also served on the Board of Visitors of the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law which has awarded him the prestigious Barbera Judicial Excellence Award in recognition of his exemplifying the highest standards of judicial excellence and extraordinary courage in the handling of complex and difficult cases.[3][10]
On January 29, 2003, Bennett was nominated byPresidentGeorge W. Bush to a seat on theUnited States District Court for the District of Maryland vacated byFrederic N. Smalkin. Bennett's nomination received the strong, bipartisan support of Democratic SenatorsPaul S. Sarbanes andBarbara A. Mikulski, and was praised by prominent members of the Maryland legal community.[6] He was unanimously confirmed with a vote of 99-0 by theUnited States Senate on April 9, 2003, received his commission on April 10, 2003, and took his oath of office on April 29, 2003.[3] After more than eighteen years on the federal bench, Bennett assumedsenior status on June 30, 2021.[11] Since taking senior status, Bennett has continued to maintain an active trial docket. Additionally, Bennett has been frequentlysitting by designation with theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.[4]
In October of 2009, Judge Bennett was appointed byChief JusticeJohn G. Roberts, Jr. to serve on the International Judicial Relations Committee of theUnited States Judicial Conference.[4] He has traveled extensively in Central andEastern Europe participating in judicial exchange programs inRussia,Estonia,Bulgaria,Turkey,Ukraine and theCzech Republic.[4]
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In 2011 he presided in the case ofNational Security AgencyWhistleblowerThomas Andrews Drake. He was also the trial judge inSnyder v. Phelps, in which case he was reversed by theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and ultimately by theUnited States Supreme Court.
In National Federation of the Blind v. Lamone, 2014 WL 4388342 Bennett held that the State of Maryland's refusal to provide an online ballot marking tool to enable blind residents to vote privately and independently violated the Americans With Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. §1201. This ruling, called "historic" by the President of the National Federation of the Blind, was affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in National Federation of the Blind v. Lamone, 813 F.3d 494 (4th Cir. 2016).
Henson v. Santander Consumer USA, Inc., 2014 WL 1806915, Bennett held that a company may collect debts that it purchased for its own account without therefore being classified as a debt collector within the ambit of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. 15 U.S.C. §1692(a)(6). His opinion was affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, 817 F.3d 131 (2016), and by the United States Supreme Court in a unanimous ruling, 137 S. Ct. 1718 (2017), affirming Bennett’s initial ruling that the federal statue applies to debt collectors who regularly seek to collect debts and not a debt owner seeking to collect debts for itself.
Mayor and City of Baltimore v. Azar, 392 F. Supp 3d 602, Bennett issued preliminary and permanent injunctions halting the implementation of a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Rule that would prohibit physicians from referring patients for an abortion, even if that is the patient’s desire ( a so-called “gag rule”). He was affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in an en banc ruling, 973 F.3d 258 (2020). Bennett declined to issue a nationwide injunction, limiting his ruling to the State of Maryland.
Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle v. Baltimore Police Department, 456 F. Supp. 3d 699, a case that received nationwide attention addressing Baltimore’s six-month Aerial Investigation Research (“AIR”) program in light ofUnited States v. Carpenter, 138 S. Ct. 2206 (2018), Bennett held that the warrantless operation of the AIR surveillance program did not violate the Fourth Amendment prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures. His opinion was affirmed by panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit by a 2-1 vote, 979 F.3d 219 (4th Cir. 2020), and subsequently reversed in an 8-7 decision by the Fourth Circuit sitting en banc, 2 F.4th 330 (4th Cir. 2021).
| Legal offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Breckinridge L. Willcox | United States Attorney for the District of Maryland 1991–1993 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Judge of theUnited States District Court for the District of Maryland 2003–2021 | Succeeded by |