Mark W. Bennett

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American judge (born 1950)

title: "Mark W. Bennett" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1950-births", "living-people", "20th-century-american-judges", "20th-century-american-lawyers", "21st-century-united-states-federal-judges", "drake-university-law-school-alumni", "gustavus-adolphus-college-alumni", "judges-of-the-united-states-district-court-for-the-northern-district-of-iowa", "lawyers-from-des-moines,-iowa", "lawyers-from-milwaukee", "united-states-district-court-judges-appointed-by-bill-clinton", "united-states-magistrate-judges", "university-of-iowa-college-of-law-faculty"] description: "American judge (born 1950)" topic_path: "law" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_W._Bennett" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American judge (born 1950) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

FieldValue
nameMark W. Bennett
imageMark W. Bennett (cropped).jpg
captionBennett's court portrait
officeSenior Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa
term_startJune 4, 2015
term_endMarch 2, 2019
office1Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa
term_start1December 31, 1999
term_end1December 30, 2006
predecessor1Michael Joseph Melloy
successor1Linda R. Reade
office2Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa
term_start2August 26, 1994
term_end2June 4, 2015
appointer2Bill Clinton
predecessor2Donald E. O'Brien
successor2Leonard T. Strand
office3Magistrate Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa
term_start31991
term_end3August 26, 1994
birth_nameMark Warren Bennett
birth_date
birth_placeMilwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.
educationGustavus Adolphus College (BA)
Drake University Law School (JD)
::

| honorific-prefix = | name = Mark W. Bennett | honorific-suffix = | image = Mark W. Bennett (cropped).jpg | alt = | caption = Bennett's court portrait | office = Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa | term_start = June 4, 2015 | term_end = March 2, 2019 | office1 = Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa | term_start1 = December 31, 1999 | term_end1 = December 30, 2006 | predecessor1 = Michael Joseph Melloy | successor1 = Linda R. Reade | office2 = Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa | term_start2 = August 26, 1994 | term_end2 = June 4, 2015 | appointer2 = Bill Clinton | predecessor2 = Donald E. O'Brien | successor2 = Leonard T. Strand | office3 = Magistrate Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa | term_start3 = 1991 | term_end3 = August 26, 1994 | birth_name = Mark Warren Bennett | birth_date = | birth_place = Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = | party = | otherparty = | spouse = | partner = | relations = | children = | parents = | mother = | father = | residence = | education = Gustavus Adolphus College (BA) Drake University Law School (JD) | alma_mater = | occupation = | profession = | known_for = | religion = | awards = | signature = | signature_alt = | website = | footnotes =

Mark Warren Bennett (born June 4, 1950) is a former United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa and a professor at Drake University Law School.

Education

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Bennett grew up in the Twin Cities and received his Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and urban studies from Gustavus Adolphus College in 1972 and a Juris Doctor from Drake University Law School in 1975.

Legal career

Bennett began his own firm, Babich, Bennett, & Nickerson, now known as Babich Goldman, after law school. He was in private practice in Des Moines, Iowa from 1975 to 1991 and also served as general counsel to the Iowa Civil Liberties Union from 1975 to 1989, specializing in employment, civil rights, and constitutional litigation. Bennett argued before the Supreme Court of the United States once and wrote several successful petitions for certiorari. He served on numerous committees for the Iowa State Bar Association and the Iowa Trial Lawyers Association.

Federal judicial service

From 1991 to 1994, Bennett was a United States magistrate judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa. On June 21, 1994, Bennett was nominated by President Bill Clinton to a seat on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa vacated by Donald E. O'Brien on recommendation from Tom Harkin. Bennett was confirmed by the United States Senate on August 9, 1994, and received his commission on August 26, 1994. As a district judge, Bennett presided over a federal death penalty trial in the 1993 Iowa murders case. He served as chief judge from 1999 to 2006, and assumed senior status on June 4, 2015. He retired from active service on March 2, 2019.

During his time as a judge, Bennett sat by designation on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and many district courts.

Sentencing practices

Bennett is an outspoken opponent of mandatory minimum sentencing. Several of his decisions opposing strict applications of sentencing laws have been reviewed by the Supreme Court of the United States.

In a 2003 case, Judge Bennett was reversed three times by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit for considering post-sentencing rehabilitation when sentencing a defendant who had subsequently recovered from drug addiction and gained stable employment. The Supreme Court then granted certiorari and reversed the Eighth Circuit in 2011, adopting Judge Bennett's position.

In 2007, a divided Eighth Circuit, sitting en banc, reversed Judge Bennett after he refused to apply the 100:1 powder/crack cocaine sentencing disparity. The Eighth Circuit was then reversed by the Supreme Court, which held that District Court judges could categorically reject that ratio.

In 2015, when an offender faced a mandatory thirty-year consecutive sentence, Judge Bennett wished to consider the mandatory minimum when sentencing on its predicate offense, but believed that he could not under Eighth Circuit precedent. The Eighth Circuit affirmed. The Supreme Court granted certiorari and unanimously reversed the Eighth Circuit, holding that Judge Bennett could follow his preferred approach.

Bennett is also notable for his practice of visiting defendants he sentenced in prison; by 2019, he had visited more than 400.

Academic career

Before Bennett's time on the bench, he taught courses at Drake University Law School, the University of Iowa College of Law, the University of South Dakota, Western Illinois University, and Des Moines Area Community College.

After retiring from the federal judiciary, Bennett joined the faculty of Drake University Law School, where he is Director of the Institute for Justice Reform and Innovation. He is also a fellow of the New York University School of Law's Civil Jury Project. He has taught at law schools and hundreds of continuing education seminars in 41 states and publishes frequently in the areas of civil procedure and trial advocacy. Bennett's scholarship, especially on implicit bias and the law, has been cited more than one thousand times. Bennett is also a co-author on an employment law treatise and works as an arbitrator and mediator.

References

References

  1. (1996). "Confirmation Hearings on Federal Appointments: Hearings Before the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, One Hundred Ninth Congress, First Session, Part 4.". Government Printing Office.
  2. (2018). "No One is Above the Law: The Story of Southern Iowa's Federal Court". Lexicon Content Marketing.
  3. (26 December 2019). "Judge Mark W. Bennett (Retired)".
  4. "Oscar Mayer & Company v. Evans".
  5. "Mark W. Bennett, Judge".
  6. Saslow, Eli. (June 6, 2015). "Against His Better Judgment". The Washington Post.
  7. (March 2, 2011). "Pepper v. United States".
  8. (2007). "Recent Case: Eighth Circuit Holds That District Court Cannot Reduce Sentence Based on Categorical Disagreement with 100:1 Powder/Crack Cocaine Quantity Ratio". [[Harvard Law Review]].
  9. "Spears v. United States".
  10. Dean v. United States, 581 U.S. __ (2017).
  11. Basu, Rekha. (October 21, 2019). "Passion for equal justice takes Iowa judge on rare journey: Into prisons, to visit 400 inmates he had sentenced". The Des Moines Register.
  12. "Mark W. Bennett Profile".
  13. "Mark Bennett".

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