[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 176 (Thursday, October 23, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7720-S7721]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                  Nomination of Stephen Chad Meredith

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I strongly oppose the nomination of 
Stephen Chad Meredith to serve as a judge on the U.S. District Court 
for the Eastern District of Kentucky.
  Like several of President Trump's other judicial nominees, Mr. 
Meredith has a long history of taking extreme positions on women's 
reproductive rights.
  As a Republican political appointee in Kentucky, he sought a 
functional ban on the most common second-trimester abortion procedure 
and attempted to shut down what was, at the time, the last remaining 
abortion clinic in the State.
  And he insulted women everywhere when he argued, in court, that 
doctors should be required to provide certain information to female 
patients because these women ``don't understand'' their own medical 
needs.
  In addition to his extreme record on reproductive rights, Mr. 
Meredith's involvement in pardoning a host of violent offenders--and 
his total lack of candor on this issue--is disqualifying.
  Then-Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin pardoned hundreds of violent 
offenders during his last days in office. Mr. Meredith served as 
Governor Bevin's chief deputy general counsel during this time.
  There is incontrovertible written evidence that Mr. Meredith worked 
on at

[[Page S7721]]

least some of these pardons. Yet, during his hearing, he swore to this 
committee, under oath, that he had no involvement.
  He testified, ``I learned about the Governor's last minute 
controversial pardons in the media after we left office.'' He also 
testified that he didn't have anything to do with Governor Bevin's 
controversial pardons. This is demonstrably untrue.
  In written questions, Mr. Meredith admitted that, at Governor Bevin's 
request, he had personally gone to a prison to inform two inmates, in 
person, that they had received pardons.
  One of those inmates had committed vehicular homicide. The other had 
been convicted of sexually abusing his six-year-old stepdaughter.
  Mr. Meredith has radical views far outside the mainstream and was not 
forthright with this Committee about his record. I cannot support his 
nomination.