Biden’s pick for Norfolk judgeship would be Virginia’s first openly gay federal district judge

Biden nominated Jamar K. Walker, an assistant U.S. Attorney since 2015, to take the seat held for nearly three decades by U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson. Walker clerked for Jackson between 2011 and 2012.

If Walker wins U.S. Senate confirmation this fall, the White House said he would be the first openly gay federal district court or federal appeals court judge in Virginia.

“This slate would include … the first openly LGBTQ Article III judge to serve in the state of Virginia,” the White House said in a July 13 announcement after nominating Walker and five others to fill judicial openings.

The term “Article III judge” refers to the section of the U.S. Constitution in which certain federal judges — from trial judges to Supreme Court justices — are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate to lifetime terms.

Walker’s confirmation would also maintain the prior racial breakdown — and Black majority — on Norfolk’s federal district court bench. (Jackson and Walker are both Black). The Norfolk-based judges hear cases from both South Hampton Roads as well as the Peninsula and Middle Peninsula.

Jackson — a former federal prosecutor nominated by then-President Bill Clinton in 1993 — took senior status in November after 28 years on the bench. That’s a form of semi-retirement in which the 72-year-old is still expected to hear cases.

Before Jackson’s move to senior status, the court’s full-time federal district judges consisted of three Black judges and one white one. (The court also includes two white district judges on semi-retirement status and three white male federal magistrate judges).

Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark R. Warner wrote jointly to Biden in March recommending Walker and another candidate for the vacancy. In the recommendation, they described his background and qualifications, noting he grew up in Accomack County and received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia in 2008 and a law degree from the school in 2011.

“He was born and raised on the Eastern Shore of Virginia and considers Tidewater his home,” the senators wrote.

After clerking for Jackson in Norfolk until 2012, he worked at Covington & Burling LLP, a large Washington, D.C., law firm. In 2015, he became an assistant U.S. Attorney in Alexandria, where he prosecutes financial fraud.

U.S. Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Karoline Foote said Walker serves as the acting chief of public corruption prosecutions for the Eastern District of Virginia.

He also co-founded the office’s Committee on Race, Policing and Prosecution, designed to address police brutality, bias in policing and prosecution and issues “relating to the intersection of race and law enforcement,” the U.S. Attorney’s website says.

He’s a member of the Old Dominion Bar Association, the National LGBT Bar Association, the Department of Justice Association of Black Attorneys and DOJ Pride.

Kristine Kippins, the deputy legal director for policy for Lambda Legal, an organization that advocates for equal rights for the LGBTQ community, told the Daily Press and The Virginian-Pilot that the significance of Walker’s nomination “cannot be overstated.”

She said there are no openly gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender federal district or appeals court judges sitting in either Virginia or the rest of the Fourth Circuit, which also includes Maryland, West Virginia and North and South Carolina.

“Walker will add a missing voice and perspective to the jurisprudence of the entire Circuit, improving judicial decision-making, and signal to LGBTQ+ and Black youth in Virginia that they too can reach the highest echelons of the legal profession,” Kippins wrote in a statement.

With the nomination, Biden tapped Walker over another candidate equally recommended by Kaine and Warner in March: Virginia Beach Circuit Court Judge Kevin Duffan, a Black jurist who previously served on that city’s Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court.

In their letter to Biden, the senators said both candidates had their “highest recommendation.”

Walker declined to be interviewed for this story.

But in a University of Virginia Law School article published last fall, Walker discussed his personal life and job. He said he met his husband while playing for the past seven years in a DC Gay Flag Football League.

“The league provided me with a chosen family in a way I never expected at this stage in my life,” Walker told the publication. “Clearly, joining the league was one of the best decisions of my life.”

He said he finds public corruption cases rewarding, particularly the fast-growing area of COVID-related funding fraud.

“Though the statutory violations are often the same, each case forces you to learn something new — whether it’s a specific approach to a criminal violation or understanding some set of facts you’ve not been exposed to previously.”

Walker said he initially expected to work longer in the private sector before transitioning to public service as a prosecutor.

“But the opportunity presented itself sooner than I planned,” Walker said. “One of the best pieces of advice my mentor gave me was not to be wedded to a plan simply for the sake of being wedded to a plan.”

“I am in a place where I am completely happy professionally and personally,” he added. “That should be the goal, and to know that I was able to get there in such a relatively short time makes me feel optimistic about what the future holds.”

Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law, said the fact that Walker clerked for Jackson likely didn’t hurt his chances of replacing the longtime Norfolk jurist.

“He could vouch for him — he’s seen his work,” Tobias said of Jackson. “I wouldn’t be surprised. It’s a nice touch. And that often happens, that some of the finest clerks for judges are recommended by the judge to the White House or the senators.”

Tobias said Walker still needs a committee hearing at the Senate Judiciary Committee, followed by committee and full Senate votes, expected to take place in September.

“He has a pretty strong record, and I think he is very well qualified,” Tobias said. “I think he’s in good shape.”