Carter received his Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude in 1967 and his Juris Doctor in 1972 from the University of California, Los Angeles and UCLA School of Law, respectively.

He also speaks frequently with judges abroad, including engagements in Brazil, Bosnia, China, the Philippines, Central Asia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Malawi.

Carter teaches an undergraduate course on international narcotics trade at the University of California, Irvine, where he has received the school's Distinguished Professors Award three times.

In the first ruling of its kind, Carter issued a preliminary injunction in 2000 ordering Orange County public school officials to allow a Gay-Straight Alliance club organized by students to meet on campus.

Following the conviction of Mariano "Chuy" Martinez on murder charges, the prosecution sought the death penalty, making it the first capital case to be tried in Los Angeles federal court since 1950.

[15] The Supreme 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.

[17] Carter has been involved in the proceedings arising from the 2002 indictment on racketeering charges of forty alleged members of the Aryan Brotherhood ("AB"), a notorious prison gang.

[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 and Tyler "The Hulk" Bingham.

The jury deadlocked on the death penalty,[21] and both have been sentenced and are now serving life terms at ADX Florence, the federal system's sole supermax facility.

The $5 billion lawsuit claimed that S&P engaged in fraud when it gave high ratings to mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations before the 2008 financial crisis.

Carter denied a motion to dismiss, noting that S&P's argument that those ratings were mere puffery was "deeply and unavoidably troubling when you take a moment to consider its implications."

[31] In 2022, Judge Carter ordered John Eastman to turn over certain documents to the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack.