Senate Democrats grill KY federal judicial nominee on Bevin pardons, abortion
Kentucky’s newest nominee to the federal judiciary faced tough questions from US Senate Democrats at a hearing Wednesday related to his time working for former GOP governor Matt Bevin.
Democrats grilled Chad Meredith, who was recently nominated by President Donald Trump to fill a spot on the bench of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, on his involvement in controversial pardons issued by Bevin as he was leaving office in 2019, as well as his defense of anti-abortion laws in Kentucky.
Meredith evaded some of the senator’s questions and maintained that his only involvement in any of the controversial pardons was to recommend against one for a man convicted of a 1993 murder.
The harshest criticism came over Meredith’s past working as a deputy general counsel under Bevin. On both social media and in the hearing room, committee Democrats pointed to Bevin’s pardon of Patrick Baker, a man who invaded a couple’s home, killing a man and pointing a gun at a pregnant woman and children.
Bevin pardoned him, but Baker was later sentenced to 42 years in prison for the same crime after federal prosecutors took up the case.
Meredith claimed that he was uninvolved in the case.
“I learned about the governor’s last-minute controversial pardons in the media after we left office, and I remember in your opening remarks you mentioned the Baker part. I can tell you without hesitation that I did not review that pardon file, and I did not advise the governor on that,” Meredith said.
Meredith is set to fill the seat of Judge Danny Reeves, who took senior status earlier this year. He is currently employed at the Cincinnati-based law firm Squire Patton Boggs, where he was recently promoted to partner.
No stranger to Kentucky politics, Meredith is the son of state Sen. Stephen Meredith, a Republican from Leitchfield. The elder Meredith, along with his immediate family and members and staff from the state legislature, were present at the hearing.
Three years ago, Meredith was slated to be nominated by former Democratic President Joe Biden in a rare deal between Biden and Kentucky GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell. The plan was dropped, however, due to the opposition of Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.
Now, both McConnell and Paul have expressed support for Meredith, and Trump gave him high marks when he nominated Meredith last month.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has yet to vote on the nominees it considered at the Wednesday hearing.
Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law who follows judicial nominations and watched the proceedings, told the Herald-Leader Meredith should have no trouble making it through the committee and the full Senate. Both are controlled by Republicans.
“He does not need any Democratic votes to be confirmed, the GOP is not worried about what troubled the Democrats, and he enjoys McConnell’s blessing, so he will easily be confirmed,” Tobias said.
Democrats didn’t let the hearing slide by without lobbing more hard questions Meredith’s way, however.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, tested Meredith’s opinion on a few Supreme Court cases. Meredith said that he believed Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark ruling against school segregation, and Loving v. Virginia, which outlawed laws against interracial marriage, were correctly decided.
Meredith did not say the same of Obergefell v. Hodges, which struck down state laws banning gay marriage. He said he was “hesitant to make an assessment” when asked if he believed they were correctly decided, comparing the more recent 2015 case to the much older, “deeply entrenched” decisions in Brown and Loving.
Both Democratic Senators and advocacy groups like the National Women’s Law Center, which wrote a letter in “strong opposition” to Meredith, voiced concern over Meredith’s defense of anti-abortion laws when he worked for Bevin and later under former Kentucky Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron.
In response to a question from Minnesota Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Meredith said he would draw a distinction between working in a political office and being a judge.
“When I was an executive branch lawyer, executive branch lawyer, it was my obligation to represent the commonwealth and defend the commonwealth’s laws, but as a judge it will be my obligation to set aside all other personal beliefs, policy preferences, things of that nature and just simply follow the law,” Meredith said.
McConnell gave opening remarks on behalf of Meredith. More than three years after his initial plans to get Meredith on the bench fell through, his words about the Kentucky lawyer were glowing, lauding his “intellect” and “skill.” He also recalled Meredith interning for his office in 2003.
“I’ve been impressed to watch a former ‘McIntern’ through the decades succeed in the legal field, public service, and now to be nominated to the federal bench,” McConnell said.
