Benton graduated from Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1972, and received a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School in 1975, where he was Managing Editor of the Yale Law Journal[1] and graduated alongside Justice Samuel Alito.

Subsequently, Benton was selected as a Danforth Fellow at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he completed the Senior Executive's Program.

[2] Prior to joining the federal bench, Benton served on the Supreme Court of Missouri from 1991 to 2004, where he was Chief Justice from 1997 to 1999.

Benton was nominated by President George W. Bush on February 12, 2004, to a seat vacated by Theodore McMillian and confirmed just over four months later by the United States Senate by a voice vote on June 24, 2004.

[4] In 2018, Judge Benton found that Missouri's requirement of a state license to braid hair did not violate the Constitution.