Justin Walker testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearing to be U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Kentucky, on Wednesday. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

Justin Walker, who vigorously advocated for the U.S. Supreme Court confirmation of his former boss, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, drew pointed questions Wednesday during a Senate hearing on his own federal court nomination after the American Bar Association deemed him “not qualified” for the bench.

Walker, 37, a litigator at Dinsmore & Shohl who also teaches at Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville, was tapped by President Donald Trump for a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. A former clerk to Kavanaugh on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Walker also clerked for Justice Anthony Kennedy.

“The ABA rated you unqualified because of your experience level. I respect the ABA a lot, but to me it's a question all of us will have to answer. Why are you qualified to be a judge?” Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsay Graham, R-South Carolina, said at Walker's confirmation hearing.

Walker said his career demonstrated his qualifications in various ways, including: teaching students trial practice, criminal law and evidence. He also pointed to his academic writings—”hundreds of pages”—about criminal procedure and other topics; maintenance of a law practice while being a full-time law professor, and 17 letters from “hundreds of local lawyers” and former students attesting to his open-mindedness.

Over the past two years, Democrats have zeroed in at times on the relative lack of court experience, and age, of some of Trump's judicial candidates. One nominee—who later withdrew—got tripped up trying to answer a question about the definition of a “motion in limine.” A 36-year-old former Williams & Connolly partner, confirmed to the Fourth Circuit, was pressed about her “life experience.”

California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat, on Wednesday homed in on Walker's lack of actual trial and court practice.

“You never served as sole or leading counsel at a trial,” she told Walker. “You appear to have worked on only one criminal case—a recent pro bono matter. Have you worked on any other criminal case?”

Walker said he has worked on “some other criminal matters,” but, he added, “the thrust of my career has been in academia.” Walker reported earning about $95,300 from his Louisville teaching post last year, in addition to receiving an $8,500 honorarium from the Federalist Society.

Feinstein pressed again asking him how many bench trials he had handled. “Have you ever taken a deposition in a federal case?” she asked. Walker said he took one deposition in a state case, adding, “My role has been at times in the courtroom, but more often than not, exploring the law, writing about the law.”

Walker noted that Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan went to the federal bench without actual trial experience. “I can analyze the kind of complex legal questions judges do,” Walker told the committee. “I would encourage you not to just take my word for it but the word of 200 litigators from my local community that I have the temperament, background and experience.”

Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee defended Walker's nomination, calling him a “lawyer's lawyer.” Lee said federal district court judges come from different backgrounds, some with trial experience.

“Others come with a lot of writing experience,” Lee said, calling that skill “every bit as important.” In walker, Lee added, “We have someone who will come to the federal district court well prepared to deal with in many ways the most difficult part of the job—dealing with dispositive motions.”

Walker, part of a wave of former Kavanaugh clerks who backed the then-judge's nomination to the Supreme Court last year, made dozens of local and national media appearances on Kavanaugh's behalf.

In an interview with The National Law Journal before Kavanaugh's nomination, Walker tried to dispel any notion that Kavanaugh would disappoint conservatives. “I would bet the farm that Judge Kavanaugh would not go wobbly” on key conservative issues,” Walker said. “He doesn't have a wobbly bone in his body.”

The committee hearing adjourned with the record left open for senators to submit written questions to Walker and other nominees.

 

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