Dear Chair Grassley, Ranking Member Durbin, and Committee Members:

We, the undersigned reproductive rights, health, and justice organizations committed to ensuring fair courts and access to the full range of sexual and reproductive health care, write to oppose the nomination of Chad Meredith to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.

Reproductive freedom is a cornerstone of democracy, and courts must fulfill their constitutional duty to uphold the checks and balances that safeguard our democratic system. In order for anyone to fully participate in a democracy, all people must have the ability to make decisions about their health, bodies, and futures. We need a federal judiciary that delivers equal justice for all of us, with fair minded judges who will uphold the laws critical to protecting our reproductive rights and freedoms. That is why when news reporting on Meredith’s potential nomination and extremist anti-abortion record emerged in 2022, many reproductive rights organizations coalesced to publicly oppose his potential nomination. Now three years later, regardless of who is in office, reproductive health, rights, and justice organizations continue to oppose this harmful nominee.

Meredith has devoted his legal career to rolling back vital progress in advancing civil and human rights. His record does not indicate that he would be a fair-minded judge committed to equal justice for all people. As the Solicitor General of the Commonwealth of Kentucky and Chief Deputy General Counsel to the Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin, Meredith demonstrated extreme hostility toward the rights of pregnant people and abortion access.

The legal arguments he advanced while defending Kentucky’s anti-abortion laws belittle the capacity of pregnant people to make their own medical decisions, demonstrate an indifference to fair play, and evince a shocking disregard for the burden such laws impose on people seeking abortion.

Read the full letter and see the list of signatories in the official letter here.