The longstanding bipartisan tradition of allowing senators to sink judicial nominees from their home state appears safe for now, despite high-profile setbacks involving President Donald Trump’s hand-picked federal prosecutors.
Key Republicans are resisting Trump’s calls to abolish the Senate’s “blue slip” practice on judicial nominees, even after courts determined Alina Habba and Lindsey Halligan were unlawfully installed as interim U.S. attorneys in New Jersey and Virginia, respectively, following blockades to their confirmations by home-state Democrats.
Senators on the Judiciary Committee, tasked with advancing U.S. attorneys and judges, indicated they are taking cues from panel Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who has been steadfastly against alterations to the upper chamber’s century-old unofficial rule, which gives senators home-state veto power, despite pressure from Trump. In a statement, Grassley spokeswoman Clare Slattery said it will be “up to the courts,” possibly even the Supreme Court, to determine the legality of Trump’s interim appointments, but reiterated the lack of appetite among GOP senators to modify the process.
“U.S. attorney and district judge nominees without blue slips don’t have the votes to get through committee or pass on the Senate floor,” Slattery said.
Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO), noting Grassley “has been pretty clear about where he’s at,” said he did not believe “anything’s changed” on the broad desire to safeguard the tradition.
The resistance to rolling back the use of blue slips marks rare GOP defiance to Trump but closely resembles Senate Republicans’ opposition to his crusade to nuke the 60-vote filibuster. And like the filibuster, Trump has made it no secret his disdain for what he considers a “SCAM” and a “ridiculous custom.”
“They’re a tool that have been used by both sides of it. Look, I understand President Trump’s frustration,” said Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL), a former longtime Capitol Hill staffer who was instrumental in crafting the GOP’s “nuclear option” rule change this year to confirm other nominees en masse. “But I feel like that issue is one where there is — there is no movement on that.”
Both parties rely heavily on blue slips to essentially veto home-state judicial nominees they disapprove, including sometimes those who are nominated by presidents of their own party. However, at least one Republican, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), went a step further than his colleagues in suggesting that a carveout to blue slips for U.S. attorneys may soon be warranted.
Hawley reflected on his frustrations and experience using blue slips to block judges in Missouri under the Biden administration and told the Washington Examiner that he has spoken personally with Trump about the practice. However, he said, continued stonewalling by Democrats of U.S. attorneys, who, unlike judges, do not serve lifetime appointments, could “start to beg for a carveout” similar to the changes made in September for confirming other presidential nominees. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has also brandished his blue slip power to block Trump’s prosecutor nominees in the Empire State.”
APPEALS COURT FINDS ALINA HABBA UNLAWFULLY SERVED AS TOP NEW JERSEY PROSECUTOR
“The longer this goes on, and the more firm the intransigence is, the more settled it is, I think the more that a carveout starts to be reasonable,” Hawley said. “I would just urge [Democrats] to rethink the embargo, because I think a year from now, two years from now, it could be a problem.”
The White House did not provide comment.