to Gibson Dunn from 2012 to 2013. During the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court, Walker gave 119 interviews to the media defending Kavanaugh, and gave several paid speeches to the Federalist Society. He has been a member of the Federalist Society since 2006. From 2015-19, Walker served as an associate professor at the University of Louisville School of Law, where he taught legal writing. In July 2018, Walker had a paper published in The George Washington Law Review reflecting on President Trump's dismissal of FBI Director James Comey and arguing, "calls for an independent F.B.I. are misguided and dangerous... the F.B.I. must not operate as an independent agency. It must be accountable to the President." Federal judicial service District court On June 19, 2019, President Donald Trump announced his intent to nominate Walker to serve as a United States district judge for the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. Walker was nominated to the seat vacated by Judge Joseph H. McKinley Jr., who assumed senior status on June 9, 2019. The American Bar Association (ABA) rated Walker "not qualified," saying that Walker "has a very substantial gap, namely the absence of any significant trial experience." The ABA stated that "Mr. Walker does not meet the minimum professional competence standard necessary to perform the responsibilities required by the high office of a federal district court judge." On June 24, 2019, his nomination was sent to the Senate. On July 31, 2019, a hearing on his nomination was held before the Senate Judiciary Committee. On October 17, 2019, his nomination was reported out of committee by a 12–10 vote. On October 24, 2019, the Senate voted 50–39 to invoke cloture on his nomination and later that day his nomination was confirmed by a 50–41 vote. He received his judicial commission on October 25, 2019. His service terminated on September 2, 2020, due to elevation to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. In April 2020, Walker blocked Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer from implementing an order preventing drive-in church services on Easter to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Walker compared the order to "the pages of a dystopian novel", and said that Fischer "criminalized the communal celebration of Easter". Vox described Walker's opinion as "oddly partisan", noting that there was no actual ban on drive-in church services, and that Fischer