McConnell: “Outstanding Nominations That Will Strengthen Our Independent Judiciary for Decades”

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) issued the following statement today [April 3] regarding the nomination of Judge Justin Walker to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Cory Wilson to serve on the Fifth Circuit: President Trump has announced two more outstanding nominations that will strengthen our independent judiciary for decades to come. Judge Justin Walker, the President's choice to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, is an outstanding legal scholar and a leading light in a new generation of federal judges. I am proud that President Trump's search took him outside the Beltway and into the Bluegrass. He has chosen a rising Kentucky star, born and raised in Louisville, to refresh the second-most-important federal court in the country. Judge Walker graduated from Duke University and Harvard Law School. He clerked on the D.C. Circuit for then-Judge Brett Kavanaugh and then for Justice Anthony Kennedy. Then he brought his talents back home, where he taught and practiced law before starting his service on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. Judge Walker is a brilliant and fair jurist who reveres the Constitution and our nation's founding principles. He understands the crucial but limited role that a judge must play in our constitutional order. I have known my fellow Kentuckian for a long time. The entire country will benefit from having this brilliant, principled, and fair-minded legal expert on this consequential bench. A few days earlier, President Trump announced another strong selection: He decided to nominate Cory Wilson of Mississippi to the Fifth Circuit. Mr. Wilson is a graduate of the University of Mississippi and Yale Law School who had already compiled impressive experience in public service before his initial nomination to the District Court. I have been honored to partner with the President as we work to strengthen the federal judiciary with impressive men and women who understand that the job of a judge is to apply our laws and Constitution as they are actually written. Lifetime appointments to the federal judiciary are among the Senate's most serious and impactful responsibilities. I am glad the President continues to send us outstanding nominees whose confirmations will strengthen the rule of law in our country and the future of our Constitution.