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, July 31, 2019. (Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM)

Justin Walker, a protégé of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell whose nomination faced fierce opposition from Senate Democrats, was confirmed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Thursday.

Walker's nomination, by a 51-42 margin, was the second for the 38-year-old judge, confirmed last year to a seat on the Western District of Kentucky despite the American Bar Association calling him "not qualified." Less than seven months later, President Donald Trump announced Walker as his pick for the D.C. Circuit seat, vacated by Judge Thomas Griffith's retirement this upcoming September.

Senate Democrats and liberal judicial groups quickly took issue with Walker's nomination, noting his lack of experience. His investiture speech, where Justice Brett Kavanaugh swore in his former clerk and McConnell also attended, also became a flashpoint, as remarks Walker made about the U.S. Supreme Court's 2012 opinion upholding the Affordable Care Act made their way into his confirmation hearing, the first held on a judicial nominee during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Justin Walker is in line for this lifetime appointment to the second-highest court in the land for two reasons," said Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin ahead of a Senate Judiciary Committee vote on Walker's nomination earlier this month. "He's a family friend of Sen. McConnell, and he's an outspoken critic of the Affordable Care Act."

But conservatives, armed with a new rating of "well qualified" from the ABA, defended the nominee. They pointed to his education, legal writings and clerkships at the D.C. Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court as showing he was ready for the seat.

Back in his home state of Kentucky, Walker's nomination has sparked divisions among his colleagues at the University of Louisville's Brandeis School of Law. Some faculty who originally signed a letter of support for Walker's nomination to the district court said they did not think he was ready for the D.C. Circuit, and could not support the nomination.

Walker was also a prominent advocate for Kavanaugh as the justice faced sexual assault allegations during his confirmation process in 2018. Walker, not yet a judge nor a judicial nominee at that point, made numerous appearances in defense of his former judge, largely on right-leaning media outlets like Fox News.

The D.C. Circuit will now have three Trump appointees, as Walker joines Judges Neomi Rao and Gregory Katsas on the bench. The confirmation will do little to change the overall composition of the court, as the retiring judge, Griffith, was also appointed by a Republican president.

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