diff --git a/dev/run-tests.py b/dev/run-tests.py
index 164c1e2200..5e8c8590b5 100755
--- a/dev/run-tests.py
+++ b/dev/run-tests.py
@@ -204,7 +204,7 @@ def run_scala_style_checks():
 
 def run_java_style_checks():
     set_title_and_block("Running Java style checks", "BLOCK_JAVA_STYLE")
-    run_cmd([os.path.join(SPARK_HOME, "dev", "lint-java")])
+    run_cmd([os.path.join(SPARK_HOME, "dev", "sbt-checkstyle")])
 
 
 def run_python_style_checks():
@@ -574,8 +574,7 @@ def main():
                                 or f.endswith("checkstyle.xml")
                                 or f.endswith("checkstyle-suppressions.xml")
                                 for f in changed_files):
-        # run_java_style_checks()
-        pass
+        run_java_style_checks()
     if not changed_files or any(f.endswith("lint-python")
                                 or f.endswith("tox.ini")
                                 or f.endswith(".py")
diff --git a/dev/sbt-checkstyle b/dev/sbt-checkstyle
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..8821a7c0e4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dev/sbt-checkstyle
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+#
+# Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+# contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+# this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+# The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+# (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+# the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+#
+
+# NOTE: echo "q" is needed because SBT prompts the user for input on encountering a build file
+# with failure (either resolution or compilation); the "q" makes SBT quit.
+ERRORS=$(echo -e "q\n" \
+    | build/sbt \
+        -Pkinesis-asl \
+        -Pmesos \
+        -Pkafka-0-8 \
+        -Pkubernetes \
+        -Pyarn \
+        -Pflume \
+        -Phive \
+        -Phive-thriftserver \
+        checkstyle test:checkstyle \
+    | awk '{if($1~/error/)print}' \
+)
+
+if test ! -z "$ERRORS"; then
+    echo -e "Checkstyle failed at following occurrences:\n$ERRORS"
+    exit 1
+else
+    echo -e "Checkstyle checks passed."
+fi
+
diff --git a/project/SparkBuild.scala b/project/SparkBuild.scala
index 7469f11df0..4cb6495a33 100644
--- a/project/SparkBuild.scala
+++ b/project/SparkBuild.scala
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ import sbt._
 import sbt.Classpaths.publishTask
 import sbt.Keys._
 import sbtunidoc.Plugin.UnidocKeys.unidocGenjavadocVersion
+import com.etsy.sbt.checkstyle.CheckstylePlugin.autoImport._
 import com.simplytyped.Antlr4Plugin._
 import com.typesafe.sbt.pom.{PomBuild, SbtPomKeys}
 import com.typesafe.tools.mima.plugin.MimaKeys
@@ -317,7 +318,7 @@ object SparkBuild extends PomBuild {
   /* Enable shared settings on all projects */
   (allProjects ++ optionallyEnabledProjects ++ assemblyProjects ++ copyJarsProjects ++ Seq(spark, tools))
     .foreach(enable(sharedSettings ++ DependencyOverrides.settings ++
-      ExcludedDependencies.settings))
+      ExcludedDependencies.settings ++ Checkstyle.settings))
 
   /* Enable tests settings for all projects except examples, assembly and tools */
   (allProjects ++ optionallyEnabledProjects).foreach(enable(TestSettings.settings))
@@ -740,6 +741,17 @@ object Unidoc {
   )
 }
 
+object Checkstyle {
+  lazy val settings = Seq(
+    checkstyleSeverityLevel := Some(CheckstyleSeverityLevel.Error),
+    javaSource in (Compile, checkstyle) := baseDirectory.value / "src/main/java",
+    javaSource in (Test, checkstyle) := baseDirectory.value / "src/test/java",
+    checkstyleConfigLocation := CheckstyleConfigLocation.File("dev/checkstyle.xml"),
+    checkstyleOutputFile := baseDirectory.value / "target/checkstyle-output.xml",
+    checkstyleOutputFile in Test := baseDirectory.value / "target/checkstyle-output.xml"
+  )
+}
+
 object CopyDependencies {
 
   val copyDeps = TaskKey[Unit]("copyDeps", "Copies needed dependencies to the build directory.")
diff --git a/project/plugins.sbt b/project/plugins.sbt
index 96bdb9067a..ffbd417b0f 100644
--- a/project/plugins.sbt
+++ b/project/plugins.sbt
@@ -1,3 +1,11 @@
+addSbtPlugin("com.etsy" % "sbt-checkstyle-plugin" % "3.1.1")
+
+// sbt-checkstyle-plugin uses an old version of checkstyle. Match it to Maven's.
+libraryDependencies += "com.puppycrawl.tools" % "checkstyle" % "8.2"
+
+// checkstyle uses guava 23.0.
+libraryDependencies += "com.google.guava" % "guava" % "23.0"
+
 // need to make changes to uptake sbt 1.0 support in "com.eed3si9n" % "sbt-assembly" % "1.14.5"
 addSbtPlugin("com.eed3si9n" % "sbt-assembly" % "0.11.2")