[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 112 (Wednesday, June 17, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3068-S3069]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    NOMINATION OF JUSTIN REED WALKER

  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I am here to talk about the nomination 
of Justin Walker to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, but let's start 
with Conner Curran. Justin Walker actually has met Conner--not really, 
but I introduced him to Conner through this picture during his 
nomination hearing in the Judiciary Committee.
  Several years ago, Conner was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular 
dystrophy, a degenerative life-threatening disease which presently has 
no cure. Most people who have the disease die by their mid-20s. Conner 
was diagnosed at age 5. I met Conner a couple of years later. There is 
probably nobody who has inspired me more with his courage, his energy, 
his strength of character than Conner Curran and his wonderful family 
who live in Ridgefield, CT.
  His parents were told, at the time of his diagnosis, that this 
beautiful young sweet child would slowly lose his ability to run, lift 
his arms, hug them, and he would need complex care for the rest of his 
life. He would need multiple specialists that would cost tens of 
thousands of dollars each year, which they could not afford. But they 
made it possible or, actually, it was made possible by the Affordable 
Care Act. Now, because of that act, he cannot be denied care. He is 
alive. He is not giving up. He is fighting for both a cure and the 
Affordable Care Act.

  He is not the only one. There are 1.5 million people in the State of 
Connecticut alone and millions more around the country living with 
preexisting conditions. There are 182,000 children among those 1.5 
million people, just like Conner, living with the potentially 
debilitating and even deadly effects of preexisting conditions, and 
there are millions more around the country. For them, for Americans, 
the Affordable Care Act is more than a law; it is a lifeline. Each of 
them can get the affordable care they need because of that lifeline.
  Right now, we all know that healthcare has never been more important. 
We talk about it every day. We are full of rhetoric on the floor of 
this Chamber about the healthcare crisis, which has precipitated an 
economic crisis and about the disproportionate effects of that 
healthcare crisis--a pandemic of an insidious, deadly disease on poor 
and, often, communities of color.
  At the time of this crisis, the President of the United States has 
nominated Justin Walker to be an appellate judge, a present district 
court judge who has said that his main mission is to destroy the 
Affordable Care Act. Of course, that is perfectly consistent with the 
Trump administration's view of the Affordable Care Act. It is 
litigating in court right now against the Affordable Care Act. 
President Trump has opposed it consistently, constantly, vociferously.
  Justin Walker, at his investiture as a district court judge, pledged 
that he would continue to make destruction of the Affordable Care Act a 
priority. During his investiture remarks, attended by his mentor, the 
majority leader, Senator McConnell, he said:

       [A]lthough my legal principles are prevalent, they have not 
     yet prevailed. . . . [A]lthough we are winning, we have not 
     won. . . . [A]lthough we celebrate today, we cannot take for 
     granted tomorrow or we will lose our courts and our country.

  That wasn't some law review article that Justin Walker wrote back 
when he was going to school. It wasn't some speech that he made to a 
local chamber of commerce. It was literally at his swearing in as a 
U.S. district court judge for the Western District of Kentucky just 
months ago, not even a year. He said: ``[A]lthough my legal principles 
are prevalent, they have not yet prevailed.'' If there were a new 
meaning to give to the word ``irony,'' this nomination would exemplify 
it.
  During a public health crisis, the President of the United States has 
nominated someone who wants to take healthcare away from people and 
deny them health insurance.
  The reason Conner is here is really to show that these big principles 
have real-life consequences. Judges have impact. The law matters. Words 
matter.


[[Page S3069]]


  

       [A]lthough my legal principles are prevalent, they have not 
     yet prevailed. . . . [A]lthough we are winning, we have not 
     yet won.

  What does a Justin Walker win look like? For those millions of 
Americans suffering from preexisting conditions, it means denial of 
healthcare. And for Conner Curran and his family, it could, in effect, 
be a death sentence.
  That may sound like an exaggeration, but it isn't to those millions 
of Americans who have preexisting conditions. It isn't to Conner and to 
his family. They live with the real-life consequences of laws that we 
make and decisions by the courts that may strike down those laws, like 
the Affordable Care Act.
  The irony here is more than abstract. The outrage here should be 
real. Justin Walker, very simply, is unfit to be a judge on the Court 
of Appeals. He was judged ``unqualified'' to be a district court judge.
  I ask my colleagues to reject his nomination.
  Thank you.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________