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Rand Paul was the one who killed Biden’s deal to nominate anti-abortion Conservative to fed. judiciary

July 16, 2022 | | Print Article

Sen. Rand Paul singlehandedly stopped President Joe Biden from nominating a pro-life judge to a Kentucky district court, and nobody knows why.

Pro-life Federalist Society member Chad Meredith was supposed to have been nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky as part of a deal made between the president and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

But on Friday, the White House issued a statement announcing that the deal was off solely because of Sen. Paul’s refusal to rubberstamp it.

“In considering potential district court nominees, the White House learned that Senator Rand Paul will not return a blue slip on Chad Meredith. Therefore, the White House will not nominate Mr. Meredith,” the White House said.

What did the White House mean by “blue slip?”

According to The New York Times, “[t]he blue slip tradition followed by the Senate Judiciary Committee effectively gives home-state senators veto power over the selection of federal district court judges for their states.”

Because Paul is from Kentucky and Biden had been trying to nominate Meredith to a Kentucky court, he therefore had the power to singlehandedly stop the nomination. And apparently, he decided to use this power. But why? That remains unknown.

What’s clear is that the senator’s decision is inexplicable, in that it makes no sense and has angered left Paul’s Republican allies but pleased his Democrat enemies.

“The net result of this is it has prevented me from getting my kind of judge out of a liberal Democratic president,” McConnell said Friday, adding that Paul’s refusal was “just utterly pointless.”

Meanwhile, Democrats are cheering in amusement.

Look:

News of the since-canceled nomination first emerged last month when the Louisville Courier Journal ran a report claiming the president had reached a deal with McConnell to nominate Chad Meredith to a district court in Kentucky.

The report provoked fury from Democrats, who accused the president of selling out to McConnell and nominating a “right-wing extremist” to the courts.

Look:

The nomination was originally supposed to occur on June 24th, but after the Supreme Court unexpectedly reversed Roe v. Wade that day, the nomination was delayed.

Now fast-forward to July 1st, when Slate obtained confirmation that McConnell had agreed to “allow Biden to nominate and confirm two U.S. Attorneys to Kentucky” in exchange for Meredith’s nomination. This bombshell further enraged Democrats.

To be clear, McConnell has claimed that there was never any deal between the two men and that the president had agreed to nominate Meredith as “a personal friendship gesture.” But it’s not clear whether this is true.

Regardless, thanks to Sen. Paul, Republicans just took an L while Democrats just scored a victory. Knowing the senator, there’s probably a good reason for his opposition to Meredith’s nomination. However, nobody knows what it is …

Vivek Saxena
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