Justin Reed Walker

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For other people named Justin Walker, see Justin Walker (disambiguation) .

American federal judge (born 1982)

Justin Reed Walker (born 1982) is an American attorney and jurist serving as a U.S. circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit since 2020. He was a U.S. district judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky from 2019 to 2020 and a professor of law at the University of Louisville from 2015 to 2019.

Early life and education

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Walker was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky . 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." Terry Walker claims to have also raised Justin, but Justin cut ties from his father once he moved to college. The relationship is still estranged despite attempts from Terry Walker. 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 a student at Louisville's St. Xavier High School , Walker's step-grandfather arranged to have him interview Mitch McConnell for a class paper, and Walker later interned for McConnell as a college student.

After high school, Walker studied political science at Duke University , graduating in 2004 with a Bachelor of Arts , summa cum laude , and Phi Beta Kappa membership. He spent a year as a speechwriter for U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld , then attended Harvard Law School , where he was a notes editor on the _Harvard Law Review _. He graduated in 2009 with a Juris Doctor , magna cum laude.

Legal career

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After law school, Walker spent one year in private practice at the law firm Gibson Dunn . He was a law clerk to then-judge Brett Kavanaugh of the D.C. Circuit from 2010 to 2011 and to justice Anthony Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court from 2011 to 2012.

After his clerkships, Walker returned to Gibson Dunn from 2012 to 2013. 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 to 2019, Walker was a 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

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District court

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On June 19, 2019, President Donald 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 assumed senior status on June 9, 2019. The American Bar Association (ABA) rated Walker "not qualified,"

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