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Reproductive Rights Profiles
Kasdin Mitchell’s Record Against Reproductive Freedom
We strongly oppose Kasdin Mitchell, Trump's pick to serve on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas
Key Takeaways
- Reproductive Freedom for All strongly opposes Kasdin Mitchell, Trump's pick to serve on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas
- Reproductive Freedom for All opposes her nomination due to her extensive record of hostility toward reproductive freedom and voting rights.
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- Trump has a deeply troubling track record of nominating judges who oppose reproductive freedom, reflecting the Trump administration’s vision for courts that are hostile to the basic reproductive rights and freedoms for all.
Who is Kasdin Mitchell?
In private practice following her clerkship with staunch anti-abortion Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Mitchell helped lead Alabama’s defense of its effort to strip Planned Parenthood of Medicaid funding.
She also has longstanding affiliations with anti-reproductive freedom organizations, including the Independent Women’s Forum, the Federalist Society, and the Teneo Network.
Dive Deeper: Kasdin Mitchell’s Anti-Repro Record
Defended Efforts to Defund Planned Parenthood
In private practice, Mitchell helped lead Alabama’s defense of its effort to strip Planned Parenthood of Medicaid funding.
The case arose in the summer of 2015, after the Center for Medical Progress, an extreme anti-abortion organization, released heavily edited undercover videos and made a series of false allegations about Planned Parenthood’s practices relating to the donation of fetal tissue for medical research at certain affiliate offices.
Multiple state and federal investigations found no evidence of wrongdoing, but the videos triggered a coordinated, multi-state campaign by conservative officials to defund the organization.
- In August 2015, Alabama Governor Robert Bentley announced that his administration was unilaterally terminating the state’s Medicaid contract with Planned Parenthood Southeast—part of a wave of similar moves by anti-abortion governors seeking to cut off millions in health care funding.
- Planned Parenthood Southeast sued Bentley and state health officials, arguing that the termination violated the Medicaid Act’s “free choice of provider” provision, which guarantees beneficiaries the right to obtain care from any qualified provider.
- Mitchell and the state’s legal team filed a brief opposing Planned Parenthood’s motion for a preliminary injunction. Their brief made the extreme argument that states administering the cooperative Medicaid program held inherent sovereign authority to determine which providers qualified based on their own unchecked assessment of an organization’s ethics.
- In November 2015, the district court permanently blocked Alabama from terminating Planned Parenthood’s Medicaid provider agreements based on allegations arising from the misleading videos—a decisive defeat against Alabama’s attempt to defund reproductive health care providers in the state.
Support for Anti-Abortion Judicial Nominees
Mitchell signed letters to the Senate Judiciary Committee supporting the confirmation of several of President Trump’s most extreme judicial nominees, including Whitney Hermandorfer, Joshua Divine, Edmund LaCour, David Bragdon, and Brian Lea.
Affiliations with Anti-Reproductive Freedom Organizations
Mitchell served as counsel of record for the Independent Women’s Law Center (IWF)
In Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta, Mitchell authored an amicus brief that argued California’s donor-disclosure requirements for tax-exempt charities violated the First Amendment—a position the Supreme Court ultimately adopted in striking down the disclosure regime.
IWF is an anti-abortion organization that claims to offer an alternative to mainstream feminism. IWF has supported restrictions at both state and federal levels and opposed the Affordable Care Act’s contraception coverage benefit. It also opposes other policies that are essential for women’s equality, including the Violence Against Women Act, paid family leave mandates, and equal pay legislation. IWF is a member of the advisory board of Project 2025 and is partially funded by the Heritage Foundation.
Mitchell has been a member of the Federalist Society since 2010.
The Federalist Society is a well-funded, conservative legal network that exerts influence through law schools, professional networks, and conferences, and over the judiciary at large. It serves as a talent and influence pipeline for the conservative movement to cultivate young lawyers and then pack the courts with judges who will execute their unpopular agenda, which includes undermining reproductive freedom.
Mitchell has been a member of the Teneo Network since 2013.
The Teneo Network is a professional network that aims to cultivate and connect rising conservative ideologues across law, business, media, and government to advance a shared extreme agenda.
Founded as an outgrowth of the Federalist Society’s model, it operates as a selective, invitation-only pipeline—aiming to exert a coordinated conservative influence across the institutions they enter to undermine our fundamental rights, including reproductive freedom.
Career
- Bachelor of Arts, Yale University, 2007
- Juris Doctor, Yale Law School, 2012
- Assistant Solicitor General, Office of the Attorney General of Alabama, 2012-2013
- Law Clerk to the Hon. William H. Pryor, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, 2013-2014
- Associate, Maynard Cooper & Gale, P.C., 2014-2016
- Law clerk to the Hon. Clarence Thomas, U.S. Supreme Court, 2016-2017
- Kirkland & Ellis LLP, 2017-Present
- Associate, 2017-2018
- Partner, 2018-Present
The Big Picture
Trump has a deeply troubling track record of nominating judges who oppose reproductive freedom, reflecting the Trump administration’s vision for courts that are hostile to the basic reproductive rights and freedoms for all.
Decisions made by these judges will impact our health, access to care, and daily lives, and we deserve to know whether these nominees are committed to fairness and equality under the law or if they are beholden to an ideology or agenda opposing reproductive freedom.
Citations and Sources
- Kasdin Mitchell, Questionnaire for Judicial Nominees, United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary (May 14, 2026).
- Planned Parenthood Se., Inc. v. Bentley, 141 F. Supp. 3d 1207 (M.D. Ala. 2015).
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- Brief for Defendant, Planned Parenthood Se., Inc. v. Bentley, No. 2:15-cv-00620-MHT-TFM (M.D. Ala. 2015).
- Planned Parenthood Se., Inc. v. Bentley, 141 F. Supp. 3d at 1229.
- Kasdin Mitchell, Questionnaire for Judicial Nominees, P. 7-8, United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary (May 14, 2026).
- About, Independent Women’s Forum, https://www.independentwomen.com/about/.
- Katherine Doyle, Donations Have Surged to Groups Linked to Conservative Project 2025, NBC (Nov. 17, 2023), https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/donations-surged-groups-linked-conservative-project-2025-rcna125638.
- Kasdin Mitchell, Questionnaire for Judicial Nominees, P. 6, United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary (May 14, 2026).
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