Senate Republicans are defending the blue slip tradition, an unwritten rule requiring home state senator approval for judicial and attorney nominees, despite President Trump’s attacks on the practice. The president has criticized the Senate for blocking his preferred nominees, but lawmakers and those familiar with the process say the Senate is not necessarily to blame.
Trump has faulted the Senate’s ‘blue slip’ tradition, an unwritten rule requiring nominees for judge, U.S. attorney and U.S. marshal to obtain home state senators’ approval prior to being confirmed. He said blue state senators will only greenlight ‘Democrats or maybe weak Republicans.’ The president called on Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to abolish the practice, and he threatened to sue over it.
But Grassley and other Republicans are unbudging in their position that blue slips are an indispensable part of the confirmation process. Blue slips have been used for more than a century. Past presidents have gotten many nominees confirmed under the system, suggesting other factors are contributing to Trump’s struggle to secure blue slips from Democrats.
TRUMP TELLS GRASSLEY TO TELL DEMOCRATS ‘GO TO HELL’ OVER BLOCKED JUDICIAL NOMINEES IN SENATE
Trump and his allies escalated attacks on the blue slip process this week, accusing Grassley of blocking nominees by maintaining it.