[3] Born in Havana, Cuba, Benitez received an Associate of Arts degree from Imperial Valley College in 1971, a Bachelor of Arts degree from San Diego State University in 1974, and a Juris Doctor from the Western State University College of Law's San Diego campus (now the Thomas Jefferson School of Law) in 1978.

[5] Benitez was confirmed despite overwhelming opposition from the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, which rates the qualifications of judicial nominees.

In 2004 testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, the ABA committee investigator reported that, "Interviewees repeatedly told me that Judge Benitez displays inappropriate judicial temperament with lawyers, litigants, and judicial colleagues; that all too frequently, while on the bench, Judge Benitez is arrogant, pompous, condescending, impatient, short-tempered, rude, insulting, bullying, unnecessarily mean, and altogether lacking in people skills.

[17] The Ninth Circuit eventually vacated his injunction and remanded it back to Benitez, only for him to strike down the ammunition restrictions the second time on January 30, 2024.

"[23][24] Benitez held that the AR-15 passed the Heller test, stating that "The overwhelming majority of citizens who own and keep the popular AR-15 rifle and its many variants do so for lawful purposes, including self-defense at home.

"[22] Benitez vocalized his disapproval of the measure in his ruling and expressed doubt that it had assisted in reducing the number of deaths inflicted by AR-15 variants, stating "More people have died from the Covid-19 vaccine than mass shootings in California.

[30][31] On September 14, 2023, Benitez granted a preliminary injunction against school district policies that bar teachers from discussing students' gender identities with the latter's parents.

[32] On September 22, 2023, Benitez overturned the State of California's "High Capacity Magazine" Ban in the Duncan v. Bonta lawsuit, citing the unconstitutionality of this law in his ruling.

[34] Unlike in his 2019 ruling, Benitez issued a 10-day stay on his second opinion in order to allow the State of California adequate time to appeal, which it promptly did later that same day.

California Governor Gavin Newsom issued a post on the social media platform "X" following the ruling, in which, amongst other statements, he expressed his disagreement with Benitez's opinion and called him an "Extremist, Right-Wing Zealot with no regard for human life.