my conscience or the law, I would follow my conscience." The conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt criticized him for "judicial activism" and "rul[ing] with his heart instead of his head." Criminal punishment In 1992, Pregerson halted the execution of Robert Alton Harris after the prisoner had been strapped into the gas chamber. The U.S. Supreme Court allowed the execution to proceed two hours later. In 2003, Pregerson refused to follow Supreme Court precedent regarding California's three-strikes law. Pregerson continued dissenting whenever the court imposed that law. Involvement in California recall election Pregerson was part of a unanimous three-judge panel that ordered the postponement of the 2003 California recall election based on the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because in the recall, six counties would use the antiquated punched cards voting system. The decision, however, was subsequently overturned by the en banc court of Ninth Circuit. Eventually, the recall was successful in removing Gray Davis from governorship, and Arnold Schwarzenegger became the new governor of California. Federalism Pregerson was a supporter of federalism and favors restraints on the power of federal government. He wrote the majority decision in the Ninth Circuit panel on Gonzales v. Raich, holding that the Interstate Commerce Clause forbade the federal government from interfering with state laws that permitted the use of medical marijuana. The ruling was later overturned by the Supreme Court, however, which held that it is within Congressional power to regulate intrastate activities that are seen to influence interstate commerce, including using homegrown marijuana for medical purposes. Pregerson's first ruling on Raich was based on federalism rather than his opinion on the merit of medical marijuana. In 2007, after Raich was decided by the Supreme Court, Angel Raich sued Alberto Gonzales again for substantive due process violation because the Controlled Substance Law deprived her fundamental right to life. Pregerson ruled against Raich this time, arguing it is still untimely to call using medical marijuana a "fundamental right" that is "implicit in the concept of ordered liberty" as only a minority of states legalized medical marijuana. In the case United States v. Reynard, the circuit court upheld the DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act of 2000. Pregerson wrote a dissent, arguing that the act was an unconstitutional exercise of federal power. Gender equality Pregerson wrote a dissenting opinion in Jespersen v. Harrah's Operating Co., which was joined by judges Alex Kozinski, Susan P. Graber, and