Justin R. Walker
Justin Reed Walker is a United States District Judge of the Western District of Kentucky and a United States Circuit Judge–Designate of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Early life, family, and education
Walker was raised in Louisville and attended St. Xavier High School. He was named after Justin Hayward, the front man for the musical group The Moody Blues. His father is Terry Martin Walker, a real estate appraiser. His mother, Deborah, and father divorced in 1985 after nine years of marriage. Walker says that he was raised by a "a single working mom" who "made indescribable sacrifices to provide me, the first in my family to graduate from college, with the opportunities she didn’t have herself." His step-grandfather, Norton Cohen, was president of the Acme Paper Stock Company and a prominent member of Louisville's Jewish community, while his maternal grandfather, Frank R. Metts, was a millionaire real estate broker who the New York Times characterized as a "power broker in Kentucky."Walker grew up in a Democratic household, though his mother had supported Republican Mitch McConnell when Walker was 8 years old. Walker became active in Republican politics at an early age. While in high school, Walker's step-grandfather arranged to have Walker interview Mitch McConnell for a class paper. In 2002, while he was a college student, Walker interned for McConnell.
Walker earned his Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, from Duke University in 2004 and his Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 2009, where he served as Notes Editor on the Harvard Law Review. While at Harvard, now-Associate Justice Elena Kagan, then dean of Harvard Law School, recommended him for a clerkship with Justice Anthony Kennedy. In 2004, he worked on the re-election campaign of George W. Bush. Walker later worked as a speechwriter for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in the Bush Administration.
Legal career
Upon graduating from law school, Walker served as a law clerk to then-Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He then clerked for Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States. During the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court, Walker gave 119 interviews to the media defending Kavanaugh, and gave several paid speeches to the Federalist Society.He has been a member of the Federalist Society since 2006.
From 2015–2019, Walker served as an associate professor at the University of Louisville School of Law, where he taught legal writing. In July 2018, Walker had a paper published in The George Washington Law Review reflecting on President Trump's dismissal of FBI Director James Comey and arguing, "calls for an independent F.B.I. are misguided and dangerous... the F.B.I. must not operate as an independent agency. It must be accountable to the President."
Federal judicial service
District court
On June 19, 2019, President Trump announced his intent to nominate Walker to serve as a United States District Judge for the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. Walker was nominated to the seat vacated by Judge Joseph H. McKinley Jr., who took senior status on June 9, 2019. The American Bar Association rated Walker "not qualified," saying that Walker "has a very substantial gap, namely the absence of any significant trial experience." In a letter, the chairman of the ABA committee said "it has no questions about Walker's temperament or integrity and that it believes he has great potential to serve as a federal judge."On June 24, 2019, his nomination was sent to the Senate. On July 31, 2019, a hearing on his nomination was held before the Senate Judiciary Committee. On October 17, 2019, his nomination was reported out of committee by a 12–10 vote. On October 24, 2019, the Senate voted 50–39 to invoke cloture on his nomination and later that day his nomination was confirmed by a vote of 50–41. He received his judicial commission on October 25, 2019.
In April 2020, Walker blocked Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer from implementing an order preventing drive-in church services on Easter to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Walker compared the order to "the pages of a dystopian novel", and said that Fischer "criminalized the communal celebration of Easter".
D.C. Circuit
On April 3, 2020, President Trump announced his intent to nominate Walker to serve as Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. On May 4, 2020, his nomination was sent to the Senate. President Trump nominated Walker to the seat being vacated by Judge Thomas B. Griffith, who will retire on September 1, 2020. On May 6, 2020, a hearing on his nomination was held before the Senate Judiciary Committee. On June 4, 2020, his nomination was reported out of committee by a 12–10 vote. On June 17, 2020, the Senate invoked cloture on his nomination by a vote of 52–46. On June 18, 2020, the Senate confirmed his nomination by a vote of 51–42. He is currently awaiting his judicial commission.According to The New York Times, Walker's nomination was handpicked by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Walker has been described as McConnell's protege. In early March 2020, McConnell flew to Kentucky to participate in an investiture ceremony for Walker. At the time of his nomination, Walker had no trial experience and had less than 6 months of experience as a judge. On May 5, 2020, the American Bar Association rated Walker as "Well-Qualified" to serve on the Circuit Court. The ABA sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee explaining their rating after deeming Walker "Not Qualified" when he was nominated for his district court judgeship. The letter said "the Standing Committee believes that Judge Walker possesses a keen intellect, and his writing ability is exemplary. Judge Walker also has significant appellate experience, having clerked for both the D.C. Circuit and the Supreme Court of the United States. Additionally, since our last rating, Judge Walker has served as a federal trial judge."