Judge Benjamin Beaton
Western Kentucky U.S. District Court
Benjamin Joel Beaton was born in 1981 in Paducah, Kentucky. He earned an undergraduate degree from Center College and his Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School. He clerked for a judge at the D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and for Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. He then entered private practice.
Beaton became a partner in a politically affiliated international law firm and teaches constitutional interpretation at the University of Louisville School of Law.
President Donald Trump nominated Beaton to a judgeship at the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. He was confirmed by the Senate in November 2020 and received his judicial commission the following month.
In the News…
U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Beaton ruled in favor of the attorneys general of 21 states who sued President Biden’s administration over a proposed federal climate mandate. The rule from the Federal Highway Administration would have required states to set targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from on-road sources.
Judge Beaton ruled that the administration did not have the authority from Congress to create nor regulate the policy.
“A tailpipe- emissions reduction forced on states under the guise of highway planning is just another example of a regulatory elephant squeezed into a statutory mousehole,” Judge Beaton wrote. He stated, “What the Administrator may not do is step into the shoes of sovereign states, which set their own targets for any standards and measures established by the agency.“
Judge Beaton continued, “If Congress did purport to give the Administrator authority to set state policy, that would raise a different and arguably bigger problem. Modern constitutional doctrine allows Congress to demand much from states, but it cannot commandeer or coerce the apparatus of state governments into mere administrative districts of the federal government.“
He added, “Given this lack of a statutory basis to require declining CO2 targets, the Final Rule cannot be justified as a tool to influence state decision-making regarding emissions reductions.“
Contact this Leader…
Did you pray for Judge Beaton today? You can let him know at:
The Honorable Benjamin Beaton
Gene Snyder United States Courthouse
601 West Broadway
Louisville, KY 40202
