GOP-Appointed Federal Judge Opposes Health Care Law That Protects People with Pre-Existing Conditions, “Still Unhappy” Courts Upheld ACA

Every Vulnerable Senate Republican Voted to Confirm McConnell Acolyte Justin Walker Last Year, Who’s Now Nominated for Lifetime Seat on Nation’s Second-Highest Court While Threatening Health Coverage

According to a new report this week from CNN, Mitch McConnell’s hand-picked federal judge and political acolyte Justin Walker is “still unhappy” about the Supreme Court ruling that upheld the Affordable Care Act and coverage protections for Americans with pre-existing conditions.

Judge Justin Walker was confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate last year despite the American Bar Association rating he was “not qualified” for the appointment because of his lack of experience, and McConnell is now already attempting to jam him through for a promotion despite the ongoing pandemic. Walker has a hearing scheduled for tomorrow on his nomination for a new lifetime appointment on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Judge Walker has long called the Supreme Court’s 2012 decision to uphold the health care law “indefensible” — and despite knowing this record, every vulnerable Republican incumbent in the Senate sided with McConnell and voted to confirm Walker last year as a District Judge for the Western District of Kentucky.

The full-throated support from vulnerable Senate Republicans for a partisan lifetime judicial appointment  is hardly surprising. Despite the fact that the GOP has long faced “a trust deficit on health care,” not a single Senate Republican has taken any meaningful action to stop their party’s lawsuit to overturn the entire ACA from “plow[ing] forward” — putting protections for pre-existing conditions coverage and other benefits at risk of being overturned. And not a single vulnerable incumbent has held the Trump administration accountable for refusing to open a special ACA enrollment period for health coverage as millions of Americans lose their jobs and their health insurance.

“While America faces an unprecedented public health and economic crisis, Mitch McConnell and Republicans are preoccupied in Washington with ramming through another unqualified anti-health care judicial nominee with a history of opposing the law that guarantees protections for people with pre-existing conditions,” said DSCC spokesperson Helen Kalla. “As Republicans continue to move forward with their crusade to tear down the Affordable Care Act and overturn its protections through the courts, it’s clear they are more focused on politics than protecting their constituents’ health care.”

CNN: Trump nominee, once a Supreme Court clerk, still unhappy at how Obamacare ruling played out

By Joan Biskupic, CNN legal analyst

Key Points:

• Judge Justin Walker, now nominated to a powerful federal court dubbed “the second highest” in the nation, remains bitter that the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act eight years ago.

• Walker was serving as a law clerk at the time of the 2012 blockbuster ruling and was infuriated at its resolution. He has continued to reveal disdain for the decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts and offer details about his inside dealings with Justice Anthony Kennedy, one of the dissenters.

• At a March event in Louisville, joined by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Walker took aim at the law commonly known as Obamacare.

• The views of Walker will be spotlighted Wednesday in the US Senate during his scheduled nomination hearing for the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

• The 37-year-old Walker, who was a University of Louisville law professor before becoming a US district court judge last fall, has drawn opposition because of his limited legal experience and for his firebrand conservatism even after donning the robe. The American Bar Association rated him “not qualified” for his current judgeship.

• Trump ran against [the Affordable Care Act] as a presidential candidate and his administration is still seeking to void the law, which after a decade has affected nearly every corner of the health care system.

• Walker has called Roberts’ 2012 opinion “indefensible.” In his recent remarks at the March investiture, he further revealed an us-versus-them mindset. After thanking McConnell, Kavanaugh and other supporters, he referred to his “nomination’s opponents,” including, he said, the American Bar Association.

• His demeanor belied Roberts’ constant admonition that judges are impartial and non-partisan, ruling without “fear or favor.”

• But he has enjoyed the longtime backing of McConnell, a Louisville family friend who persuaded Trump to nominate Walker. McConnell has been an unyielding partner to Trump in stocking the federal bench with conservatives.

• On April 3, three weeks after the Louisville investiture and six months after he first took the federal bench, Trump announced that he would elevate Walker, a Harvard law graduate who still serves as a part-time law professor at the University of Louisville, to a coveted seat on the DC Circuit.

• Walker did not respond to a CNN request for an interview.

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