The Hon. Reggie B. Walton (Ret.) is a senior district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. He was nominated to the seat by President George W. Bush on October 29, 2001. Walton was confirmed by the United States Senate on September 21, 2001, and received his judicial commission three days later. He assumed senior status on December 31, 2015.
During his tenure on the federal bench, Walton received an appointment by President Bush to serve as chair of the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission in 2004 and was appointed to a seven-year term by Chief Justice John Roberts to the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in 2007. He went on to be elevated to Presiding Judge of the same court in 2013.
Walton began his judicial career as an associate judge for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in 1981 and rejoined its bench in 1991. He received his first appointment from President Ronald Reagan in 1981 and his second from President George H.W. Bush in 1991. On the Superior Court, Walton served as Presiding Judge of the Family Division, Domestic Violence Unit, and Criminal Division.
In between his Superior Court tenure, he was associate director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy in the Office of President George H.W. Bush and served as his senior White House Advisor for Crime (1989 to 1991).
Before beginning his judicial career, Walton was Executive Assistant United States Attorney with the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia since 1980. He joined the office as an Assistant United States Attorney in 1976. During his tenure as a federal prosecutor, Walton also served as chief of the Career Criminal Unit (1979 to 1980).
He began his legal career as a staff attorney with the Defender Association of Philadelphia in 1974.
Walton received a B.A. from West Virginia State University in 1971. He then completed a J.D. at American University, Washington College of Law in 1974.
Among his numerous accolades, Walton received the Presidential Who’s Who District Court Judge of the Year Award in 2010.
He has taught as an instructor in the Harvard Law School’s Advocacy Workshop and as a faculty member of the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada. Walton has also provided instruction to Russian judges on criminal law matters through a program funded by the United States Department of Justice and the American Bar Association’s Central and East European Law Initiative Reform Project.
From a civic standpoint, he has been involved with youth in Washington, D.C., including as a Big Brother.
Walton was born in Donora, Pennsylvania. He and his wife have one daughter.