He was nominated as judge by President George H. W. Bush on May 16, 1991, and confirmed by the United States Senate on September 12, 1991.
In May 2004, Chief Justice William Rehnquist appointed Benson to serve as a judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for a seven-year term.
[4] Benson then attended BYU in Provo, Utah, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1973, majoring in Physical Education with a minor in political science.
That same year, Benson became a member of the charter class at the J. Reuben Clark Law School at BYU.
[5] In addition to his legal studies, Benson played professionally in the American Soccer League which has since been disbanded.
Upon graduation from BYU, Benson accepted a position with a Salt Lake City firm then known as Martineau & Maak where he stayed less than one year.
His duties as legal counsel for Parsons included reviewing contracts as well as handling lawsuits that arose with general contractors and employees.
He was recommended to the post by his former boss, Senator Orrin Hatch to replace U.S. attorney Brent Ward.
Benson's recommendation was further supported by Senator Jake Garn and by United States Attorney General Richard Thornburgh.
He received a presidential nomination from President George H. W. Bush and confirmation by the United States Senate before being sworn in on August 8, 1989.
[5] In May 1991, Benson was nominated for a federal judgeship to the United States District Court by President George H. W. Bush.
[8] In 2011, Judge Benson sentenced eco-activist Tim DeChristopher to two years in prison for disrupting an oil auction in 2008.
Think about the Underground Railroad that helped escaped slaves to freedom, or about the courageous actions of people like Rosa Parks, who refused to stay in the back of the bus simply because of their skin color.
Without this kind of defiance of unjust laws, our country would likely still be denying people of colour basic freedoms.
"In 2012, Judge Benson denied convicted felon Dewey MacKay's request to remain free pending appeal of his guilty verdict.
[11] MacKay, an orthopedic surgeon from northern Utah, was convicted in August 2011 of 40 counts related to illegally prescribing pain killers.
He said that America's jury system is not perfect, but added that jurors in MacKay's case performed their jobs diligently.
This lawsuit was filed by three energy companies along with the Utah counties of Carbon, Uintah and Duchene against Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and related federal authorities.
The case involved 77 gas and oil drilling leases that were cancelled by Secretary Salazar in February 2009.
... Judge ... Benson strictly limited how much the defense could say about federal energy policies and climate change, which Mr. DeChristopher has said in numerous interviews were his primary motivations in going to the auction.
The case was then appealed and heard by the Tenth Circuit Court who overturned Judge Benson's previous decision.
The court found that monuments that were privately funded were considered government speech and therefore not in violation of any one group's First Amendment rights.
In his opinion, Justice Samuel Alito analogized that, if the law accorded with Summum and its "civil liberties" supporters, New York City would have been required to accept a Statue of Autocracy from the German Empire or Imperial Russia when it accepted the Statue of Liberty from France.