WASHINGTON, D.C., July 24, 2019 – Alliance for Justice today issued its research report on the record of Justin Walker, President Trump’s nominee for a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. AFJ President Nan Aron released the following statement:
“Justin Walker is getting a district court nomination for one reason: as a reward for his partisan loyalty and willingness to do or say anything to curry favor with party hardliners like Mitch McConnell. At no time was this more clear than in his relentless cheerleading for the highly controversial Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Walker is someone who believes the job of a judge is to be a ‘warrior’ for conservatism and to use the courts to advance a political agenda. His own professional record is very thin, as he is only 37. But in that short time he has established himself as a staunch opponent of unions, public education and health care. This is very bad news for the people of western Kentucky.”
Among other things, the AFJ report finds:
- Walker’s partisan loyalty, rather than his legal experience, appears to have attracted the attention of the White House. Walker did over 70 media interviews defending embattled Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. In contrast, by his own admission, he has never “served as sole or chief counsel in any case tried to verdict or judgment”; only once served as “associate counsel at a federal criminal jury trial”; and only once has he “taken an expert deposition.”
- Walker praised Kavanaugh as a “warrior” for “conservative legal principles,” who would would not go “wobbly.” Our system of government relies on judges to be neutral arbiters, not “warriors” for any cause.
- Following credible allegations of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her, Walker publicly defended the accused assailant, minimized corroborating evidence of sexual assault, and attacked the integrity of Democratic senators.
- Walker is a critic of the Mueller investigation who once wrote an article arguing against the independence of the FBI, after President Trump fired the FBI Director because of “this Russia thing.”
- Walker is a staunch opponent of the Affordable Care Act, which has provided critical health coverage to millions of people. He has called the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the ACA “indefensible,” and praised Brett Kavanaugh for providing a “roadmap” for Supreme Court justices “who said Obamacare was unconstitutional.”
- Walker has attacked public education, taking the position that the right to education contained in state constitutions, and increased spending on public education, would infringe upon the liberty of “the minority of individuals who pay the majority of income taxes.”
- Walker is an avowed opponent of labor unions, and one of the very few cases he has participated in as an attorney involved defending a mining company in a dispute with the United Mine Workers.
- Walker was not even admitted to practice in the Western District of Kentucky, the court to which he is being nominated to be a judge, until this year.