Judge Roger Benitez said in a San Diego courtroom on Dec. 16 that he would soon issue an injunction halting part of a state law scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, according to The Associated Press. The offending provision would require those who fight the state's gun laws to pay the government's legal fees should they lose in court and was heavily promoted by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat with presidential ambitions.

The case, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, is Miller v. Bonta, court file 22-cv-1446. The lawsuit is one of many now pending in courts across the country after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled this past June that individuals have a constitutional right to carry firearms in public for self-defense.

The so-called loser-pays requirement would produce a "chilling effect" that would hinder state residents from suing to vindicate their legal rights because they would fear having to pay potentially huge lawyers' tabs, Benitez said, agreeing with Second Amendment advocates.

"I can't think of anything more tyrannical," said Benitez, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush.

Benitez previously ruled against California laws targeting gun ownership. His defense of the Second Amendment has earned him the nickname "St. Benitez" among gun rights activists.