In 2003, J.T. sued the prosecutors who had hidden the evidence in his case for failing to train their lawyers on the importance of turning over favorable evidence. The jury, considering the blatant destruction of evidence in J.T.’s case, awarded him $1 million for every year he was on death row — $14 million in total.

When the prosecutors appealed, they argued, with a straight face, that what had happened to J.T. was so outrageous and illegal that the New Orleans district attorney could not be held responsible. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court.

Enter Kyle Duncan, the man we are to believe has the fairness and temperament to be a federal judge.

Mr. Duncan is best known for his work in Washington, D.C., as the former general counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a conservative organization that “defends religious liberty for all.” He played a leading role in opposing the provision of the Affordable Care Act requiring employers to provide insurance coverage for contraceptives. Mr. Duncan also defended North Carolina’s photo ID law that the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit wrote had targeted black voters “with almost surgical precision.” He also defended Louisiana’s ban on gay marriage in several different courts before the Supreme Court prohibited state bans on gay marriage.

While representing the prosecutors when the case went to the Supreme Court, Mr. Duncan was serving as what he later called “solicitor general” of Louisiana, a position that does not exist. He devised the argument that, although the district attorney had withheld evidence in many cases involving innocent men, there was no need to train lawyers in his office because they would have learned about their obligation in law school.