[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 168 (Wednesday, October 23, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S6086]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      NOMINATION OF JUSTIN WALKER

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, we have seen too many Trump judicial 
nominees in recent years who don't know their way around a courtroom. I 
suspect some of these nominees never even made it through a ``Law and 
Order'' episode.
  The majority leader is now rushing a floor vote on Justin Walker, 
nominated to be a district court judge in Kentucky. Mr. Walker was just 
reported out of committee last week. The Walker nomination is 
leapfrogging a dozen other judicial nominees who have been on the 
calendar longer.
  The American Bar Association, which does peer review evaluations of 
nominees, concluded that--Mr. Walker is not qualified to be a Federal 
trial judge. This is the eighth Trump judicial nominee to be rated 
``not qualified'' by the ABA.
  Mr. Walker is 37 years old and has been out of law school for only 10 
years. He has never tried a case as lead or cocounsel, whether civil or 
criminal. He has only conducted a single deposition.
  The ABA said that with Walker, ``it was challenging to determine how 
much of his ten years since graduation from law school has been spent 
in the practice of law.''
  I find it hard to believe that there is a shortage of experienced, 
qualified attorneys or State court judges in Kentucky who could hit the 
ground running as a Federal trial judge. In fact, there is an 
experienced Kentucky State court judge sitting on the Senate Executive 
Calendar right now--David Tapp, whose nomination to the Court of 
Federal Claims I supported in the Judiciary Committee. Why can't we get 
district court nominees who actually know what they are doing in the 
courtroom, like Judge Tapp?
  Rather than gaining actual courtroom experience, Mr. Walker has spent 
much of his time in recent years making media appearances. In 2018 
alone, he appeared on TV or radio 127 times. That is not what we need 
on the Federal bench.
  I will oppose the Walker nomination. He simply lacks the litigation 
and trial experience to serve as a district court judge.

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