WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump says the Senate’s century-old tradition of allowing home state senators to sign off on some federal judge and U.S. attorney nominees is “old and outdated.” Republican senators disagree.
Trump has been complaining about what’s called the blue slip process for weeks and has pushed Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to abandon the practice. But the veteran senator hasn’t budged. On Monday, Trump said he may sue, arguing that he can only get “weak” judges approved in states that have at least one Democratic senator.
“This is based on an old custom. It’s not based on a law. And I think it’s unconstitutional,” Trump told reporters. “And I’ll probably be filing a suit on that pretty soon.”
A look at the blue slip process and why Republicans are holding on to it, for now:
It’s unclear who Trump would sue or how such a lawsuit would work since the Senate sets its own rules. And Senate Republicans have been unbowed, arguing that they used the process to their own benefit when Democrat Joe Biden was president. They say they will want the practice to be in place if they are in the minority again.
Republicans also note that judges who don’t receive approval from their home state senators are unlikely to have enough votes for confirmation, anyway.
“In Biden admin Republicans kept 30 LIBERALS OFF BENCH THAT PRES TRUMP CAN NOW FILL W CONSERVATIVES,” Grassley posted on X shortly after Trump’s remarks on Monday.
North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican member of the judiciary committee, posted on X that getting rid of the blue slip “is a terrible, short-sighted ploy that paves the path for Democrats to ram through extremist liberal judges in red states over the long-term.”
Republicans “shouldn’t fall for it,” Tillis wrote.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has also defended blue slips, saying in the past that he had used the process himself and worked with the Biden administration when there was a judicial vacancy in South Dakota. “I don’t sense any rush to change it,” Thune said.
The blue slip is a blue-colored form that is submitted to the two home state senators after the president nominates someone to become a district judge or U.S. attorney, among other federal positions that are contained within one state.
The home state senators can individually return the slips with a positive or negative response. If there is a negative response, or if the form is not returned, the chairman of the judiciary panel can choose not to move forward.
Democrats have opposed several of Trump’s nominees this year, including Alina Habba, a nominee for U.S. attorney in New Jersey, and two prosecutors nominated in New York who have been blocked by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.
The blue slip tradition has been in place since at least 1918, according to the Congressional Research Service. But like many Senate traditions, it has evolved over the years to become more partisan. Until 2017, at the beginning of Trump’s first term, blue slips were also honored for nominees to the circuit court, which oversee multiple states. But the Republican-led judiciary panel, also led then by Grassley, did away with that tradition.
In the past, the White House has often worked with home state senators as they decide who to nominate. But Trump and Democrats have shown little interest in working with each other.
Trump has focused his ire on Grassley, a longtime ally who is the senior-most Senate Republican. In a July post on social media, Trump called on Grassley to have the “courage” to stop honoring the blue slips.
“Chuck Grassley, who I got re-elected to the U.S. Senate when he was down, by a lot, in the Great State of Iowa, could solve the ‘Blue Slip’ problem,” Trump posted.
Grassley responded by defending the practice, and he said he was “offended by what the president said, and I’m disappointed that it would result in personal insults.”
Trump revived his complaints this week, culminating with the threat to sue. On Sunday, he posted that “I have a Consultational Right to appoint Judges and U.S. Attorneys, but that RIGHT has been completely taken away from me in States that have just one Democrat United States Senator.”
Even as Republicans have defied Trump on blue slips, they have agreed with him that the nominations process needs to move faster — especially as Democrats have slowed votes on all of his nominees.
Trump and Republicans pressured Senate Democrats to lift some of their holds on nominees ahead of the traditional August recess, threatening to force them to remain in session all month. But the effort was unsuccessful, and the Senate left town anyway, with Trump posting on social media that Schumer can “GO TO HELL!”
After that standoff, Thune said the chamber will consider in the fall Senate rule changes that would make it harder for Democrats to block or slow votes on nominations.
“I think that the last six months have demonstrated that this process, nominations, is broken,” Thune said. “And so I expect there will be some good robust conversations about that.”
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