Senate Panel Advances Circuit Picks, Ex-Biden District Choice

The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced the nominations of Trump appellate picks for Maine and California seats and the selection of a former Kentucky solicitor general to a district judgeship years after Joe Biden sought to put him on the same court.

The Republican-led panel on Thursday approved Eric Tung for the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and Joshua Dunlap for the First Circuit, along party lines.

Judiciary Democrats rehashed their concerns over statements and writings by Tung and Dunlap over the past 20 years regarding same-sex marriage, gender roles, and abortion access.

Chad Meredith also advanced along party lines, 12-10, in his bid to become a judge on the US District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky after progressive outrage tanked his previous nomination under Biden.

Biden had angered progressives in 2022 with plans to nominate Meredith, an anti-abortion Republican, shortly after the US Supreme Court’s decision overturning constitutional abortion rights.

This time, Judiciary Democrats seized on his anti-abortion advocacy across his career as the chief appellate advocate for Kentucky and previously as chief deputy general counsel to the state’s governor.

At his confirmation hearing, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) asked about his defense of a clinic licensing law that ultimately would force some women to travel more than 150 miles to receive an abortion.

Meredith said it was “his recollection” that Supreme Court precedent at the time wouldn’t impose an undue burden on women who had to travel, some out of state.

She moreover pressed him on whether he’d follow the 1965 Supreme Court precedent in Griswold v. Connecticut that protected contraception. Meredith said he’d commit to “follow and abide by all binding” Supreme Court precedents.

He told Klobuchar that as a judge “it would be my obligation to set aside” personal beliefs and policy preferences and “simply follow the law.”

Abortion was also a point of concern over Tung’s nomination.

Among other lines of questioning at his July 30 confirmation hearing, Tung was asked about remarks he gave at a Federalist Society event this year where he said that “whether there’s a constitutional right to abortion, same-sex marriage, sodomy” that the answer “for the originalist is simple: no.”

“Mr. Tung is not here because of his experience. He’s here simply because of his extreme ideologies,” said Sen. Alex Padilla of California, where Tung would preside if confirmed.

Tung and Dunlap endorsed originalism and textualism during their confirmation hearings and said it would guide their interpretation of the law, if confirmed. They also pledged to abide by Supreme Court precedent.

Also advanced Thursday, William Mercer gained party line support for his nomination to the District of Montana.