Biden abandons plan to nominate anti-abortion, GOP federal judge who McConnell pushed

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden is abandoning plans to nominate a conservative, anti-abortion attorney as a federal judge in Kentucky, with the White House citing opposition from a surprising source: Republican Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.

The White House's retreat from its planned nomination of attorney Chad Meredith – in what was a purported deal with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell – follows a strong backlash from Democrats and progressives furious that Biden would choose a Federalist Society member who has argued against abortion access to fill a vacancy on the bench.

“In considering potential District Court nominees, the White House learned that Sen. Rand Paul will not return a blue slip on Chad Meredith," Andrew Bates, White House deputy press secretary, said Friday. "Therefore, the White House will not nominate Mr. Meredith.”

More: 'It wouldn’t be my choice for judge': Senate Democrats slam Biden's planned anti-abortion pick

Paul could not be immediately reached for comment.

Traditionally, home-state senators return what's known as a "blue slip" to indicate support for federal nominees for district judges.

Republicans abandoned the "blue slip" practice for appeals court judges during the Trump administration but kept it for district court judges. Democrats have kept the same practice.

“We’re pleased that the Biden administration made this decision – it’s the right call,” NARAL Pro-Choice America President Mini Timmaraju said in a statement. “With abortion rights and access on the line in Kentucky and across the country, it is absolutely essential that all judges defend and uphold our fundamental rights and freedoms, including reproductive freedom.”

As first reported exclusively by The Courier Journal, a White House official informed Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear's office in a June 23 email that it planned to nominate Meredith the next day to a U.S. District Court judgeship in Kentucky's Eastern District.

The next morning, however, the U.S. Supreme Court released its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutional right to abortion and sending shock waves across the nation. Meredith's intended nomination was not announced or submitted.

U.S. District Judge Karen K. Caldwell of Kentucky Eastern District notified the White House on June 22 that she was taking senior status and would vacate her seat – but her intended vacancy was not published online until July 1.

Abortion-rights groups called the potential nomination "unacceptable" and demanded Biden not move ahead with it.

Several Senate Democrats this week said they would vote against a Meredith nomination, raising the prospects of the president’s own party blocking the pick if he moved forward.

The New York Times first reported on the White House abandoning the Meredith nomination.

McConnell told the New York Times "there was no deal" with Biden to trade a Meredith nomination for other considerations in the chamber, calling the president's willingness to nominate his favored conservative judge the kind of “collegiality” senators used to display.

"This was a personal friendship gesture," McConnell added.

McConnell also said he was "very surprised" that Paul expressed his opposition to a Meredith nomination.

Since the June 23 email, Biden has formally nominated 21 individuals for federal judicial vacancies – but none of them Meredith – in a rush to get more judges confirmed before the November midterm elections when Democrats risk losing control of the Senate.

More: Exclusive: Email shows Biden was set to nominate anti-abortion GOP judge on day of Supreme Court Roe ruling

Criticism from the left over the Meredith pick came as Biden faced outcries from progressives demanding bolder action to ensure abortion access after the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe.

Beshear, a Democrat, called on Biden to rescind Meredith's name.

U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky., expressed outrage with the pick, saying that Biden must have worked a deal with McConnell so he wouldn't hold up future White House nominations.

Over the past three weeks, the White House repeatedly declined to discuss the status of the Meredith nomination or whether Biden had a deal with McConnell.

"We have not received any update from the White House about a nomination that, if made, would be indefensible," Beshear said Thursday.

McConnell had refused to talk about Meredith's potential nomination, but a spokesman dismissed talk of a deal as "false information."

Meredith, 40, served as counsel to former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin and solicitor general for Attorney General Daniel Cameron.

Meredith defended a 2017 Kentucky abortion law requiring doctors who perform abortions to first perform an ultrasound and describe the image to the patient. He lost at a trial in federal court but the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later upheld the statute.

Bevin administration documents showed Meredith was one of Bevin's general counsel staff to give recommendations to the governor on whether certain applicants deserve clemency, with one suggesting he worked on one of the most controversial applicants, Patrick Baker, pardoned for killing a man and later retried and convicted in a federal murder charge, then sentenced to 39½ years in prison.

But McConnell told the New York Times the FBI background check done in preparation for the nomination "confirmed he had nothing to do with it," he said of the pardons.

"He would not have cleared the background check if that had been a problem," Robert Steurer, McConnell's spokesman, told The Courier Journal Saturday.

Reach Joey Garrison on Twitter @joeygarrison.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden abandons plan to nominate anti-abortion federal judge