US President Joe Biden intends to nominate a Republican anti-abortion lawyer for federal judgeship, said two Kentucky Democrats briefed on the decision.
The potential nominee, conservative attorney Chad Meredith, would be appointed for life to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.
Meredith’s potential nomination was first reported by The Courier-Journal.
Kentucky Democrats expressed outrage over Meredith’s expected court nomination before it was clear a vacancy would emerge on the bench. But on Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Karen K. Caldwell of the Eastern District of Kentucky was added to a public list of future federal justice vacancies, paving the way for Meredith to potentially join the court.
The U.S. Court List says Caldwell shared his decision late last month to upgrade to “senior” status as a court judge. By taking a higher status, US courts say, judges can choose to handle a reduced caseload; whatever the workload, the statute creates a vacancy within the tribunal on which they sit.
Biden’s potential nomination comes just as the president pledges to use everything in his power to fight for abortion rights following the week’s US Supreme Court ruling last quashing Roe v. Wade. With the elimination of the federal constitutional right to abortion, states will have to determine abortion rights unless Congress acts.
Meredith previously worked as an assistant attorney to Republican Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, defending a state law that requires doctors performing abortions to first perform an ultrasound and describe the image on the monitor to the patient.
In court in 2018, Meredith argued that the law would ensure that women are better informed of their decision because “not all patients understand the consequences of the abortion procedure”.
“It’s right at the heart of what states are allowed to do to regulate medicine,” Meredith said at the time. “There are a number of patients who don’t understand the nature of the fetus within them.”
A spokesperson for Democratic Rep. John Yarmuth of Kentucky told CNN the congressman “was made aware of the White House’s intention to nominate Meredith by White House staff.” And Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear said at a press conference Thursday that his team was made aware of Biden’s intention to nominate Meredith “at the end of last week.”
“From what I currently understand, he hasn’t been submitted, which I hope at least means he’s on hiatus,” Beshear said.
Beshear had strong words for Biden, saying, “If the president makes this nomination, it’s indefensible.”
The governor also criticized Meredith’s involvement in Bevin’s decision to grant hundreds of pardons before he left office, which included pardons for a variety of violent acts such as murder and rape. There were accusations from critics that some of the pardons were political in nature, which Bevin denied at the time.
“I don’t know how the president can say he’s for public safety if he makes this appointment,” Beshear added.
Asked for comment, a White House official said, “As a matter of practice, we don’t comment on executive or judicial vacancies.”
Yarmuth told the Courier-Journal that he believes Meredith’s potential appointment “is part of a larger deal on judicial appointments between the president and Mitch McConnell” — namely, bringing the Senate Minority Leader to agree to no longer withhold future federal nominations from Biden.
Brian Fallon, co-founder and executive director of Demand Justice, a left-leaning organization focused on U.S. courts, on Friday criticized Biden’s potential nomination of Meredith in contrast to his record of judicial appointments.
“One of the unqualified achievements of the Biden presidency has been his prioritization of judicial appointments and the elevation of public defenders and civil rights lawyers. I don’t understand why you would undermine that record to cut a bad deal with McConnell – hot on the heels of (the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade) no less,” Fallon tweeted.
CNN has reached out to Meredith and McConnell’s office for comment.
There are 119 current or anticipated vacancies in the lower courts. So far, the Biden administration has nominated a candidate for 34 of those vacancies.