In a June 23 email, White House aide Kathleen Marshall, who works in the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, wrote to Coulter Minnix in Beshear’s office that Chad Meredith “will be nominated tomorrow” to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. The subject line of the email read “Close the hold,” and the body of the correspondence included a summary of Meredith’s resume.
On June 24, the Supreme Court shook the nation by announcing its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and eliminate federal abortion rights. CNN reported this week that White House adviser Dana Remus had assured senior aides that a decision would not be made this Friday, amid growing frustration among Democrats at a perceived lack of urgency from the Biden White House following the Roe decision .
A new June 23 White House email indicating that Biden planned to nominate an anti-abortion Republican to a lifetime judgeship the next day — the day the Roe decision ultimately came down — appears to further support the idea that the White House did not expect Roe to be overturned that Friday.
The Courier Journal first reported the emails between the White House and Beshear’s office.
Although the White House has not confirmed its intention to pick Meredith, the nomination has been described by people familiar with the matter as part of a potential deal with U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the top Republican in the chamber.
For Biden, any deal could clear the way for some of the dozens of nominees currently held up in the Senate just months before the midterm elections. As Democrats continue to struggle in the polls, White House officials have begun planning for a Republican takeover of the House and, potentially, the Senate — something that would put a major hurdle in the way of any future Biden nominees.
Judicial nomination deals are nothing new—the realities of the Senate required them for Biden’s predecessors—and no Republican has shown more interest in the federal judiciary than McConnell.
Meredith has ties to McConnell’s world beyond shared birthright. He worked for Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, a former McConnell staffer considered a rising star in the Republican Party.
Meredith also clerked for Amul Thapar, a federal appeals court judge who had long had McConnell’s support. McConnell pushed Thapar as a potential Supreme Court nominee during the Trump administration.
In another June 29 email, also obtained by CNN through an open records request, Marshall wrote to the same aide in Beshear’s office: “Coulter – I’m sorry I didn’t include this in the original email, but I wanted to clarify that the email, that I sent was privileged information before a decision was made. Please let me know if you have any questions.”
Meredith has not been nominated yet.
CNN previously reported Biden’s intention to nominate Meredith for a federal judgeship. Bescher, a Democrat, sharply criticized Biden, saying at a recent news conference: “If the president makes this nomination, it’s indefensible.”
Meredith, who also previously served as deputy general counsel to then-Republican Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, defended a state law requiring abortion doctors to first perform an ultrasound and describe the image on the patient’s monitor.
Reports of his potential nomination drew fierce criticism not only from Democrats but also from abortion rights groups.
“Chad Meredith should not be nominated for a lifetime judgeship. This is unacceptable at any time, but especially on the heels of six Supreme Court justices taking away a fundamental right from millions of people,” Choice America, a group of organizations including Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro, said in a joint statement Tuesday.
White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre fielded multiple questions at the briefing about reports of Biden’s intention to nominate Meredith on Tuesday and insisted the White House does not comment on any court vacancies.
Asked more generally whether Biden would ever appoint a judge who does not support abortion rights to the federal bench, Jean-Pierre said that was a “hypothetical” scenario that she could not speak to.
Pressed on whether this would be a litmus test for Biden, Jean-Pierre reiterated: “All I can tell you is that we usually don’t talk about vacancies that — where we haven’t made a decision yet, whether it’s for the judiciary or the executive’.
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