Health-law remarks fodder for Democrats
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s nominee to the most influential federal appeals court clashed with Democrats over his past comments about the Affordable Care and Patient Protection Act, while Republicans praised his recent ruling allowing limited Easter church services during the coronavirus pandemic.
Judge Justin Walker, a protege of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, faced criticism at Wednesday’s confirmation hearing over his remarks two years ago that rulings upholding the health law were “indefensible” and about jokes he made at the law’s expense at a ceremony in March marking his entry onto the federal bench.
Republicans are pushing to elevate Walker to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit — a promotion that Democrats decry as too quick for the 37-year-old after just six months as a district judge in Kentucky.
Democrats pointed to the early March ceremony in which Walker spoke before a crowd that included McConnell, Kavanaugh and former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, for whom Walker served as law clerk when Kennedy was in the minority in a ruling upholding the Affordable Care Act.
Walker defended his comments in March — that the “worst words” he ever had to deliver to Kennedy was that Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the liberal bloc, tipping the case — as a lighthearted joke trying to praise someone he considered a mentor.
“He has been an invaluable mentor and friend to me since I clerked for him in 2011 and 2012,” Walker said of Kennedy. “It was not meant as anything more than a reference to the dissent that he wrote, and again, a bit of a tongue in cheek, tongue in cheek allusion to the reality that no Supreme Court justice likes being in the dissent.”
Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the committee, said health care groups have raised concerns that Walker’s confirmation could “exacerbate the health crisis in this country.”
And Republicans sought to highlight Walker’s Easter service ruling in Louisville, from Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who introduced him to the panel, to Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the chairman who used his first question to ask about the decision.
Last month, Walker blocked Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer, a Democrat, from forbidding drive-in church services on Easter to slow the spread of the coronavirus, a decision hailed by McConnell and other conservatives.
Walker’s nomination received a surprise boost late Tuesday when the American Bar Association reversed its initial “Not Qualified” rating during his 2019 confirmation process for the post in the lower trial court, instead deeming him “Well Qualified” for this more prominent post.
The association said that its switch came from the differences between the courts, with the appellate court post placing less emphasis on trial experience and instead a “high degree of legal scholarship, academic talent, analytical and writing abilities, and overall excellence.”