David Carter | |
|---|---|
| Judge of theUnited States District Court for the Central District of California | |
| Assumed office October 22, 1998 | |
| Appointed by | Bill Clinton |
| Preceded by | William J. Rea |
| Personal details | |
| Born | David Ormon Carter (1944-03-28)March 28, 1944 (age 81) Providence, Rhode Island, U.S. |
| Spouse | Mary Cohee |
| Education | University of California, Los Angeles (BA,JD) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch/service |  United States Marine Corps |
| Years of service | 1967–1969 |
| Rank | First Lieutenant |
| Battles/wars | Vietnam War |
| Awards | Bronze Star Purple Heart |
David Ormon Carter[1] (born March 28, 1944) is aUnited States district judge of theUnited States District Court for the Central District of California.[2]
In college he lettered in cross country and track on the teams ofJim Bush. Carter received hisBachelor of Arts degreecum laude in 1967 and hisJuris Doctor in 1972 from theUniversity of California, Los Angeles andUCLA School of Law, respectively. After graduating from college, Carter accepted a commission in theUnited States Marine Corps. He served in theVietnam War where he fought in theBattle of Khe Sanh, receiving aBronze Star forvalor in 1968. He was medically discharged as aFirst Lieutenant after receiving aPurple Heart.
Carter began his legal career as an Assistant District Attorney with theOrange County District Attorney's Office in 1972 where he became the senior deputydistrict attorney in charge of the office's homicide division. Carter filed charges and was the initial prosecutor in the case of serial killerWilliam Bonin, also known as "The Freeway Killer," who became the first person executed bylethal injection inCalifornia in 1996.
| External audio | |
|---|---|
 “Rethinking Ink”,Distillations Podcast Episode 220,Science History Institute |
In 1981, Carter joined the bench as a Municipal Court Judge inOrange County, California. One year later, he became an Orange County Superior Judge, a position that he held until joining the federal judiciary in 1998. Carter initiated a variety of programs to assist in the rehabilitation of convicted felons, including atattoo removal program for gang members,[3] and was active in planning the county'sLaw Day festivities. He earned the nickname "King David" from attorneys while serving as the Supervising Judge of the court's Criminal Division.
 | This section of abiography of a living personneeds additionalcitations forverification. Please help by addingreliable sources.Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced orpoorly sourcedmust be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentiallylibelous. Find sources: "David O. Carter" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(October 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Carter was nominated by PresidentBill Clinton on June 25, 1998, to fill a seat vacated byWilliam J. Rea. Carter was confirmed by theUnited States Senate on October 21, 1998, and received his commission the following day.[4] He now sits in the Southern Division of theCentral District of California inSanta Ana, California.[5]
As a jurist, Carter is known for his intellect, courteous judicial demeanor, work ethic, and expertise in complex criminal cases.[6] Although he is assigned to theCentral District of California, Carter also regularly sitsby designation in theUnited States District Court for the District of Idaho and on occasion in theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and in theDistrict of Guam.
In addition to his judicial functions, Carter lectured fellow judges at the California Judges College, the Judicial Criminal Law Institute, and the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference. He also speaks frequently with judges abroad, including engagements inBrazil,Bosnia,China, thePhilippines,Central Asia,Pakistan,Afghanistan, andMalawi.
Carter teaches an undergraduate course on international narcotics trade at theUniversity of California, Irvine, where he has received the school's Distinguished Professors Award three times.
In the first ruling of its kind, Carter issued apreliminary injunction in 2000 orderingOrange County public school officials to allow aGay-Straight Alliance club organized by students to meet on campus. Carter held that theEqual Access Act requires apublic high school, which accepts federal funding and establishes a limited open forum for non-curriculum-related student groups, to allow a student group promotinghomosexual tolerance to meet on campus.[7]
Plaintiff's attorney explained, "The judge's opinion was resounding. He really regarded this case as important and understood the real-life issues."[8]
The case settled after Carter issued the injunction when the school board agreed to recognize the Gay-Straight Alliance organization. Although the case was politically controversial, Orange County School Board member Linda Davis later admitted at a board meeting on November 18, 2000 that Carter's legal ruling was correct: "We know the law is on their side, but our community members don't want it."[9]
Between 2000 and 2001, Carter presided over the longest criminal trial in the history of theCentral District of California.[10] This case involved the prosecution of more than forty alleged members of theMexican Mafia on charges ofmurder,attempted murder,conspiracy to murder,extortion,robbery, and variousdrug trafficking andfirearms crimes. Much of the case involved a triplehomicide that occurred in 1998.[11]
The case was severed into three trials, with Carter presiding over each, and lasted for a combined 18 months. Following the conviction of Mariano "Chuy" Martinez on murder charges, the prosecution sought thedeath penalty, making it the first capital case to be tried inLos Angeles federal court since 1950.[12] A jury ultimately spared Martinez, sentencing him instead tolife imprisonment.
In 2002, Carter awarded over $88 million in damages to formerPlayboy Playmate Vickie Lynn Marshall, also known asAnna Nicole Smith, in the battle over the estate of her late husband, billionaireJ. Howard Marshall. The case came to Carter on appeal following a federal bankruptcy court ruling that awarded Smith $475 million of her late husband's $1.6 billion fortune.
Carter concluded that Howard's son,E. Pierce Marshall, interfered with Smith's attempts to collect herinheritance. "The evidence of willfulness, maliciousness, and fraud is overwhelming," Carter wrote in his 54-page opinion.[13] Upon finding that Smith had a reasonable expectation that she would receive a portion of her husband's estate without interference, Carter held that Smith was entitled to collect $44.3 million inpunitive damages and $44.3 million incompensatory damages against Pierce Marshall.[14]
TheNinth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated Carter's order on the grounds that he lackedjurisdiction to hear the case becausefederal jurisdiction interfered withTexasprobate court proceedings.[15] TheSupreme Court of the United States reversed the Ninth Circuit, concluding in a unanimous opinion that Carter properly exercised jurisdiction over Smith's claim and remanded the case for further proceedings.[16] However, on remand from the Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit determined that Carter should have deferred to the earlier decision of the Texas probate court, and directed Carter to enter judgment for Marshall.[17]
Carter has been involved in the proceedings arising from the 2002indictment onracketeering charges of forty alleged members of theAryan Brotherhood ("AB"), a notoriousprison gang.[18] This indictment alleges that the AB ordered thirty-two murders over a 23-year period and charges forty-one AB gang members and associates with violations of the federalRICO Act.[19] Twenty-six defendants were eligible for thedeath penalty, making this the largest capital indictment in federal history.[20]
Twenty of the defendants charged in the indictment were assigned to Carter, including two of the three commissioners of the AB's federal faction,Barry "The Baron" Mills andTyler "The Hulk" Bingham. Following a six-month trial, a jury convicted both Mills and Bingham of committing Violent Crimes in Aid of Racketeering (VICAR) and murder. The jury deadlocked on the death penalty,[21] and both have been sentenced and are now serving life terms atADX Florence, the federal system's solesupermax facility.
The trials of several remaining defendants are currently ongoing before Carter and other judges in theCentral District of California.
Carter presided over a $500 million lawsuit betweenMGA Entertainment andMattel over the origins and ownership of theBratz line of fashion dolls. Ultimately, Mattel was ordered to pay $137 million in attorney's fees and costs.[22]
In 2009, Carter dismissed a lawsuit,Barnett v. Obama, challenging President Barack Obama's election and assumption of office because of claims that Obama was not anatural born citizen of the United States, commenting thatthe power to remove a sitting president from office resides with Congress, not the judiciary.[23][24]
Carter presided over a civil action brought by theU.S. Department of Justice againstStandard & Poor's. The $5 billion lawsuit claimed thatS&P engaged in fraud when it gave high ratings tomortgage-backed securities andcollateralized debt obligations before the2008 financial crisis. Carter denied a motion to dismiss, noting that S&P's argument that those ratings were merepuffery was "deeply and unavoidably troubling when you take a moment to consider its implications." S&P claimed that this action is retaliation for its2011 downgrade of United States debt.[25] In 2015, S&P settled with the DoJ for $1.375 billion.[26]
In 2018, Judge Carter was the judge presiding in a case involving clearing homeless people from theSanta Ana River Trail inOrange County, California.[27] Known for his unconventional approach, he helped broker a deal between the residents of the river trail and the county, whereby many of the residents were placed in motels for a month.[27][28]
In 2019, Carter was removed from presiding over a case involving homeless plaintiffs challenging anti-camping ordinances in five South Orange County cities due to concerns about his bias. His statements and actions in the Santa Ana River Trail case were cited in the order removing him from the case: "The Court finds that in view of the combination of circumstances, a reasonable observer would conclude based on appearances that the District Judge [Carter] is not unbiased."[29]
In 2021, he was the judge in a case involving removing homeless people fromEcho Park, Los Angeles.[30] On April 21, 2021, Carter ruled in a 110-page opinion brief that homeless people onSkid Row, in Los Angeles, must be offered housing by October 18.[31] Both the city and county of Los Angeles appealed, and Carter's ruling was overturned on September 23, 2021, by a unanimous vote of the9th Circuit Court of Appeals.[32]
In 2022, Judge Carter orderedJohn Eastman to turn over certain documents to theUnited States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack. In his order, the judge said "the Court finds it more likely than not thatPresident Trump corruptly attempted to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021."[33] In the civil suit, Eastman had claimedattorney-client privilege, but Carter rejected the claim because attorney-client privilege does not apply if the discussion involved a crime, and "the illegality of the plan was obvious."[34] In that opinion Carter coined the term “this was a coup in search of a legal theory.”[35]
| Legal offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Judge of theUnited States District Court for the Central District of California 1998–present | Incumbent |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
