ABOUT
David S. Walker is the retired, Dwight D. Opperman Distinguished Professor of Law, Emeritus, at Drake Law School, where he twice served as Dean of the Law School, from 1987-1996 and again from 2003-2008, and taught courses in corporate and business law. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the ACLU of Iowa and also the Executive Committee of the NAACP Des Moines Branch. With his colleague Russell E. Lovell, II, Walker is Co-Chair of the Legal Redress Committee for the Des Moines Branch as well as the State NAACP in Iowa.
Walker is a member of the Iowa State Bar Association and served as Chair of its Corporate Laws Committee from 2010 to 2020. He also served as Chair of the Section’s Legislative Committee. Since 1992 he has been appointed by successive Iowa Governors to be one of Iowa’s three Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. He has served on several Drafting Committees and is a member of and past Chair of the Joint Editorial Board for Uniform Unincorporated Organization Acts. He has been the Chair of the Iowa Commission since the year 2000. On its behalf he has sought introduction of and appeared before Iowa House and Senate Subcommittees on more than thirty Uniform Acts, or amendments to them, that Iowa has enacted into law.
He has worked with Professor Lovell and NAACP State Conference President Betty Andrews on many initiatives, including anti-racial and ethnic profiling bills introduced in the Legislature; on Unbiased Policing Ordinances adopted by the cities of Des Moines, Coralville, and Iowa City; on fair chance for employment (“Ban the Box”) bills; on jury selection and management legislation; the Governor’s Executive Order Number 7 restoring the right to vote for persons previously convicted of a felony; on changes and additions to the Secretary of State website necessary and helpful in light of Executive Order Number 7; and revision of Iowa Rule of Criminal Procedure Rule 2.18(5)(a) to make eliminate as a ground for dismissing a jury previous conviction of a felony if the person’s citizenship rights were restored.
On behalf of the NAACP Walker has co-authored with Mr. Lovell eight Amicus Curiae Briefs addressing issues in cases before the Iowa Supreme Court. The issues in these cases have included a challenge to the constitutionality of pretextual traffic stops (written in conjunction with counsel for the ACLU of Iowa); the constitutional right to an Impartial Jury drawn from a fair cross section of the community served by the trial court; the authority of the Iowa Civil Rights Commission to adjudicate complaints in a public hearing, which a private corporation claimed had been ousted by an employee’s arbitration agreement; and the validity of “Ban the Box” ordinances passed at the local level.
