Richard D. Bennett

Richard D. Bennett (born August 12, 1947) is a United States Senior District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland. Born in Maryland, Bennett is a graduate of Severn School, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. He previously served as an Assistant United States Attorney and the United States Attorney for Maryland, and was awarded multiple commendations for his service. While maintaining an active trial docket in the District of Maryland, Bennett has increasingly been sitting by designation with the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Bennett would remain at the firm until his appointment to the federal bench in 2003.

Outside of his legal practice, Bennett served over 20 years in the United States Army Reserve and the Maryland National Guard, and is a Major 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.

Federal Judicial Service

On January 29, 2003, Bennett was nominated by President George W. Bush to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Maryland vacated by Frederic N. Smalkin. Bennett's nomination received the strong, bipartisan support of Democratic Senators Paul S. Sarbanes and Barbara A. Mikulski, and was praised by prominent members of the Maryland legal community. Since taking senior status, Bennett has continued to maintain an active trial docket. Additionally, Bennett has been frequently sitting by designation with the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

In October 2009, Judge Bennett was appointed by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. to serve on the International Judicial Relations Committee of the United States Judicial Conference. He has traveled extensively in Central and Eastern Europe participating in judicial exchange programs in Russia, Estonia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Ukraine and the Czech Republic.

Notable Cases

In 2011 he presided in the case of National Security Agency Whistleblower Thomas Andrews Drake. He was also the trial judge in Snyder v. Phelps, in which case he was reversed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and ultimately by the United 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 of United 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).