President Donald Trump is tapping a young district judge and former clerk to Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
The nomination of Justin Walker, 37, comes after the American Bar Association deemed him not qualified for his current post as judge for the Western District of Kentucky, where he has served for just over five months.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has actively promoted Walker behind the scenes.
"I think you cannot credibly argue that Justin Walker is not a judicial all-star," McConnell said in an interview with The Washington Post in advance of the announcement Friday, ticking off Walker's academic and legal credentials.
Chief among them are Walker's clerkships with former Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy and Kavanaugh during his tenure on the D.C. Circuit. Kennedy and Kavanaugh privately recommended Walker for the D.C. Circuit vacancy in conversations with Trump, according to a person familiar with the calls, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Even more active was McConnell. He knows Walker's grandfather and first met Walker when Walker interviewed the future majority leader for an article for his high school newspaper. McConnell had previously recommended Walker for the Western District seat, and in January accompanied the judge to the Oval Office to meet the president.
Trump, McConnell recalled, came away impressed with Walker during the 15-minute conversation and connected well with him. Walker is the youngest nominee to the D.C. Circuit since 1983, and the first from outside Washington since 2005.
"I thought it might be a good idea to go outside the Beltway" for the D.C. vacancy, McConnell said. "There are plenty of D.C. lawyers that salivate over this job."
McConnell returned home to Kentucky to attend Walker's investiture in Louisville, Ky., last month. Kavanaugh was there to swear in his former clerk.
Walker would fill a vacancy being created by the retirement of Judge Thomas B. Griffith, a George W. Bush appointee who indicated early last month that he will retire in September. Trump has had two picks confirmed to the influential appellate court: Gregory G. Katsas, the president's former deputy legal counsel, and Neomi Rao, who was Trump's regulatory czar before her judicial nomination.
A graduate of Duke University and Harvard Law School, Walker has served as law professor at the University of Louisville since 2015. He is a member of the Federalist Society, a network of conservative lawyers.
The biggest mark on his record has been his "not qualified" rating from the nonpartisan American Bar Association, which told the Senate that Walker did not have the requisite courtroom experience to serve as a judge.
"Mr. Walker is less than 10 years out of law school, has never tried a case, has never served as co-counsel, and it's not clear how much of his 10 years has even been spent practicing law," Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a floor speech opposing his nomination.
Republicans have frequently dismissed the bar association's ratings of Trump nominees. Walker was confirmed on a party-line, 50-41 vote in October.
A Section on 04/04/2020