President Joe Biden Abandons Plan to Nominate Anti-Choice Attorney as Federal Judge in Kentucky

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President Joe Biden has ended his plan to nominate an anti-choice Republican lawyer as a federal judge in Kentucky following last month's reversal of the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision.

Earlier this month, multiple media outlets reported that Biden, 79, had planned to nominate Chad Meredith as a federal district judge in Kentucky on the day the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, citing emails.

Now, the White House says that Biden has abandoned those plans after Rand Paul, a senator from Kentucky, did not return a blue slip to sign off on the nomination.

"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," White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement, per CNN.

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RELATED: President Biden Planned to Nominate Anti-Abortion Judge on the Day Roe v. Wade Was Overturned, Emails Show

Back in June, White House aide Kathleen Marshall, who works in the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, wrote to a staffer in Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear's D.C. office about a nomination for Meredith to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, The Louisville Courier-Journal previously reported.

"To be nominated tomorrow: … Stephen Chad Meredith: candidate for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky," Marshall wrote in an email that had a subject line indicating it was not intended to be widely distributed.

"Thanks, Kate. I'll share the info and appreciate the heads up," Coulter Minix, the Beshear staffer, replied, according to reports.

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The next day, the Supreme Court announced its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that granted women the right to an abortion in every state.

Days later, on June 29, Marshall wrote in a follow-up email to Minix: "Sorry for not including this in the original email. But I wanted to clarify that the email I sent was pre-decisional and privileged information. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you. Kate."

Meredith was then not included on a list of federal judicial nominations previously released by the White House, which made it unclear if Biden still planned to nominate him before the White House made its follow-up statement on Friday.