Justin Reed Walker (born 1982) is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as a U.S. circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He was previously a U.S. district judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky from 2019 to 2020. Early life, family, and education Walker was raised in Louisville and attended St. Xavier High School. He was named after Justin Hayward, the front man for the musical group The Moody Blues. His father is Terry Martin Walker, a real estate appraiser. His mother, Deborah, and father divorced in 1985 after nine years of marriage. Walker says that he was raised by a "a single working mom" who "made indescribable sacrifices to provide me, the first in my family to graduate from college, with the opportunities she didn’t have herself." Terry Walker claims to have also raised Justin, but Justin cut ties from his father once he moved to college. The relationship is still estranged despite attempts from Terry Walker. His step-grandfather, Norton Cohen, was president of the Acme Paper Stock Company and a prominent member of Louisville's Jewish community, while his maternal grandfather, Frank R. Metts, was a millionaire real estate broker who the New York Times characterized as a "power broker in Kentucky." Walker grew up in a Democratic household, though his mother had supported Republican Mitch McConnell when Walker was 8 years old. Walker became active in Republican politics at an early age. While in high school, Walker's step-grandfather arranged to have Walker interview Mitch McConnell for a class paper. In 2002, while he was a college student, Walker interned for McConnell. Walker graduated from Duke University in 2004 with a Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude. He worked as a speechwriter for U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld from 2005 to 2006, then attended Harvard Law School, where he was a notes editor on the Harvard Law Review and graduated in 2009 with a Juris Doctor magna cum laude. Legal career Upon graduating from law school, Walker spent one year in private practice at the law firm Gibson Dunn. He served as a law clerk to then-judge Brett Kavanaugh of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 2010 to 2011 and for justice Anthony Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court from 2011 to 2012. After his clerkships, Walker returned