On the day Roe was overturned, President Biden announced his intention to nominate an anti-abortion judge to the bench in an email that was made public by the office of Democratic Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear.
To be nominated tomorrow: Stephen Chad Meredith: candidate for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, according to an email sent by Beshear’s office on June 23 that was obtained by The Courier Journal on Wednesday.
However, Meredith’s nomination was never made public because on June 24 the Supreme Court declared that Roe was invalid.
Although neither party will acknowledge it, the White House and Kentucky-born Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell apparently made a deal to give Meredith a lifetime appointment.
Meredith previously worked for former Republican governor of Kentucky Matt Bevin as both the chief deputy general counsel and the state’s solicitor general.
As chief deputy general counsel, he defended Kentucky’s abortion ban that requires women to get an ultrasound before having their pregnancies terminated, with the doctor required to explain what they see to the patient.
Former Nevada lieutenant governor and senior adviser to governors Kathleen Marshall, a White House aide, sent the email.
Its subject line, “Close hold,” indicated that the contents were to be kept under wraps.
Coulter Minix, a member of the Beshear team working in the governor’s D.C. office, received the message.
Thank you Kate, I’ll pass along the information and appreciate the heads-up. Minix
Additionally, the governor’s office provided the newspaper with a follow-up email from a White House representative dated June 29 that clarified the previous message was “pre-decisional and sensitive information.”
Later that day, The Courier Journal was the first to report about the proposed nomination.
In the briefing on Tuesday and during a gathering on board Air Force One on Wednesday, questions regarding the article were directed at White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
In a statement to the media on Tuesday, she stated that “we make it a point here to not comment on any vacancy, whether it is on the executive branch or judicial branch.”
When a reporter questioned her about whether the president would ever appoint a judge to the federal bench who opposes abortion rights, she responded that it was only a “hypothetical.”
When asked about a “litmus test,” she stumbled over her words and once more replied that the White House wouldn’t comment on open positions.
On May 4, Politico reported that the Supreme Court intended to overturn Roe, releasing a leaked draft opinion of the Dobbs decision. On Wednesday, Jean-Pierre was questioned about how the White House justified the nomination of an anti-abortion nominee.
She emphasized her previous day’s advice to refrain from criticizing vacations.
Just yet, she explained, “we have not made a nomination on this.”
Then Jean-Pierre listed all the judges that Biden had so far appointed.
According to her, “The judiciary symbolizes the variety of America, including a trailblazing new Supreme Court Justice, and that is something that we’re going to continue to accomplish and we won’t stop there.”