Nomination of Justin Reed Walker

Floor Speech

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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.

[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.

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