Democrats have weaponized a 100-year-old Senate tradition known as the “blue slip” to block constitutionalist judges and tough-on-crime prosecutors and prevent President Donald Trump from fulfilling his constitutional duty of filling vacancies in the judicial system. Senate Republicans shouldn’t let well-intentioned but misguided efforts to preserve this outdated practice get in the way of delivering on the mandate Americans handed them last November.
The Senate blue slip dates back to 1917, when the Senate Judiciary Committee first introduced it as a courtesy to home-state senators. The committee would send senators a literal blue piece of paper on which they could indicate approval, disapproval, or neutrality regarding a judicial nominee from their state.
The practice was designed to give senators – who presumably knew their state’s legal community best – special power in the confirmation process over nominees from their home state, while also reinforcing the Senate’s constitutional “advice and consent” role.
The power of the blue slip, however, has never been uniform. Some Judiciary Committee chairs have treated a missing or negative slip as an outright veto, while others have viewed it as only advisory. In modern times, the tradition has been applied most strictly to district court nominees, since their jurisdiction is confined to one state, while appellate court nominees have increasingly moved forward even if blue slips are withheld.
The blue slip is in the news now because Democrats are abusing the practice to block scores of Trump’s nominees.
The most high-profile case is that of Alina Habba, Trump’s former personal attorney, whom he tapped to be a federal prosecutor in New Jersey. That state’s two Democrat senators, Cory Booker and Andy Kim, declined to turn in their blue slips on her nomination. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA), honoring the blue slip tradition, refused to schedule a hearing for Habba, killing her nomination.
In doing so, Grassley effectively handed Booker and Kim a veto over one of Trump’s nominees, despite the fact that American voters elected Trump to install tough-on-crime figures like Habba in prosecutorial roles.
In response to pressure from the White House to limit or outright abolish the blue slip practice, Grassley pointed out that blue slips also allowed Republicans to block some of Biden’s nominees. “The 100 yr old “blue slip” allows home state senators 2 hv input on US attys & district court judges In Biden admin Republicans kept 30 LIBERALS OFF BENCH THAT PRES TRUMP CAN NOW FILL W CONSERVATIVES,” the 91-year-old senator posted on X.
But Grassley would do well to heed his own advice from eight years ago and not be so gullible as to believe that Democrats are acting in good faith now. “We should not allow home-state senators to abuse this courtesy by attempting to block committee proceedings for political or ideological reasons,” he said back in 2017.
That comment came in response to a Democrat push to allow just a single senator’s unreturned or negative blue slip to block the Judiciary Committee from even holding a hearing on a nominee. At the time, Grassley’s office published a memo which pointed out that “since the blue slip courtesy was created in 1917, only two chairmen (Sens. James Eastland and Patrick Leahy) had strict policies requiring two positive blue slips from home-state senators before the Judiciary Committee would consider a nomination.”
Perhaps even more importantly, given the present context, the memo notes that “in 25 of the 36 years before Senator Grassley became Chairman, chairmen have allowed hearings on nominees despite negative or unreturned blue slips.”
In other words, Grassley himself has acknowledged that the blue slip is not a hard and fast rule, that holding a hearing for Habba wouldn’t be out of step with how prior chairs have treated an unreturned blue slip, and that allowing Democrats to abuse the blue slip courtesy to advance their own partisan agenda is a dangerous precedent to set.
Grassley should also recognize that this is precisely what Democrats are doing now – which is why Trump was able to appoint and confirm 234 federal judges in his first term, while he has confirmed only five in the first seven months of his second term.
Democrats showed last year that there is no length to which they will not go to block Trump’s agenda. The same politicians and pundits whining about “partisan” judges and U.S. Attorneys just spent four years weaponizing the entire American legal system against their top political rival in Donald Trump, from launching FBI raids on his Florida home to dragging him and the entire country through a sham trial in New York City so they could brand him a “convicted felon.” Are we really to believe now that Senate Democrats are truly worried about “decorum” and “institutional norms” when it comes to blue slips?
Grassley and others who defend the blue slip are well-intentioned, and in a better world, their faith in Senate tradition would be admirable. It would be refreshing if senators truly exercised that courtesy with their states’ best interests in mind.
But that is not the world we live in. Time and again, Democrats have proven that they know only one language: power. The days of bipartisan consensus and mutual respect for Senate norms are long gone. Republicans cannot afford to cling to outdated courtesies while Democrats weaponize them to stop a duly elected president from implementing the agenda that the American people elected him to pursue.
Shane Harris is the Editor in Chief of AMAC Newsline. You can follow him on X @shaneharris513.
Past time to do away with this “rule” that has not basis in the US Constitution.
WHY IS THERE EVEN A 91 YEAR OLD CONGRESSMAN? THIS IS EXACTLY WHY WE NEED TERM LIMITS!
Yes, I think there needs to be a reversal of the tradition.
Why does this “blue slip rule” override the Article iI provision concerning Presidential appointments. The appointments clause clearly states “with the advice and consent of the Senate”. It does not mention needing the consent of just 1or 2 Senators.
Blue slip is a “courtesy” which allows DIMMs to, in effect, choose weak RINOs to open positions during Republican presidencies. Meanwhile, Republicans will allow just about ANYONE to be put in by a DIMM, even people who cannot [will not] define “woman.”
lWhy is it that Republicans see all of this and do not stop it?
Reminds me of the liberal “Senate Parliamentarian” who threw a bunch of woke pork into the OBBB. Looks like we have another RINO, I won’t say who it is, but his initials are Chuck Grassley.
Should that sleeping beauty be not put to rest, or at least to a mental test, to think that he is in the position of decision making, he is not an anomaly, but norm, he is lucky brains are not required in his job. Quite few would be out of the cushy seats had that been expected
Come on Mr. Grassly, you are an American Patriot, not a stooge for the Marxist Democrats.
It seems to me that we need a new committee Chairman. I have long respected Senator Grassley but I have to wonder if he is now more concerned with being liked across the aisle than being respected by constitutionalists.
Very sad, this only hurts the USA!!!
Democrats LOVE crime.
Democrats love, encourage, and defend criminals (Home-grown dirtbags and Illegal scum).
Democrats love corrupt, left-wing, radical, do-nothing DAs that REFUSE to prosecute rapists, murderers, drug pushing maggots, child molesters, arsonists, gangbanger thugs, illegal slime, etc..
Democrats love Soros-paid crooked, Socialist judges
Democrats don’t give a damn about victims, they ONLY care about criminals rights and protecting their freedoms.
Democrats (politicians AND their voters) are truly America’s ENEMIES WITHIN.
Senator Grassley has to get tougher. The America of today is not the America of 50 years ago. The democrats say they are the party that are doing things right. They are pro religion because DEI is ingrained in religion. I don’t think so. DEI promotes racism, division and envy. And they will push it on the people till the end of time. For they know they’re right. They say stop talking start fighting. They never dialogue with anyone, they already stopped talking. They call us a name, call the president names but never seem to come up with a dialogue or plan. We have proof, to back up what we say. Only they don’t believe it because they have been brainwashed not to think for themselves. The deep state will do that for them. The MSM will keep them informed about what to belief. They said Habba isn’t qualified for the job but they don’t say what she was missing. When you ask them they hem and haw, for they don’t know nothing. Just stir up trouble to oust the reps. and keep this country divided. Therefore I say Grassley do away with this stupid rule. Nothing in the constitution says this has to be accepted. At one time it worked for the democrats and fit their interpretation, at one time. Now they use it to hamstring the judges and president Trump. Only they are hurting the people and the country. Just be tough and ignore the blue slips and let the Trump nominated judges be installed. The dems are not the boss. The voters who voted for President Trump to be their leader are and that included the judges he appointed. The democrats have already bought many judges to weaponize them. We know who they are. The ones that think they have the power to rule over the country instead of a duly elected president. These judges should all get a pink slip.
Other workers are expected to retire NLT 75 years of age. Time to get term limits and mandatory retirement age for these folks since folks just keep electing them. Think outside the box, period.
Nice to read about what is wrong, BUT if there is no ACTION LINK attached to a problem, we aren’t solving the problem. Can we post a contact for Grassley’s office &/or committee contact, please?
Senator Grassley is either a dithering gullible old fool or a RINO or perhaps both. This is is another example of representatives in Congress who stick around too long. The Democrat party are not what they used to be and actually quite dead set against anything that is good for the average American citizen.
Please Chuck either open your eyes to current reality or retire already!
President Trump is always right and he is a great man and a great President!!!!! We need to continue to support him and give him everything he needs to succeed!!!!!
This is why we voted for President Trump.
To irradicate all The Weaponization of the Government by the Radical Democrats and RINO Republicans!
Scrap district judges then or vet
Silly me! I thought that our Senators were suppose to be working for the betterment of the Nation. Instead, They seem to work for their “Party” and the parties agenda. Democrats, aka Communist party, is working for the destruction of the country. Why else would they want undocumented, unvetted people into the country and crime to run amok in our cities. Republicans, why have you stood for nothing for so long? All of you, “Start working for the Country” and not yourselves!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As usual, idiocy abounds in the GOP as they think they’re piously taking the high road when they’re actually doing needless, time-consuming, over-budget road construction that slows progress for President Trump to drive his administration through. The only majority the Republicans seem to have is in stupidity.
Democrats could weaponize anything they touch as long as it keeps them in power. The problem with Senators is the 17th amendment. There are no controls on Senators, no term limits, no real way to recall them, no way to get them to do their job. They have free reign to build their political empire by any means they deem suitable. In short, they’re a bunch of arrogant, infantile, egos that seriously need a strong baby sitter.
Why are they this way? Simple, the 17th amendment changed the way they are elected to a popular vote of a state’s electorate instead of by the state congress. Senators were originally meant to be the representatives of the state to protect state’s rights. They were meant to easily be recalled by the state legislature if they didn’t do their job. The 17th is an egregious power grab by the federal government to wrest control away from the individual states by removing their representation in the federal government.
Want a Senator that does his/her job? Repeal the 17th amendment!
Time for Grassley to be PRIMARIED
Man, the majority, vast majority of the naysayer democrats are selfishly seeking control, and they need to be charged with ruination, clandestine behavior, illegal, and breaking rules and laws, as evidenced by past behavior. YOU are not representative, you are disliked, you are sinister in belief and intent, and you will NOT be elected or reelected, and good riddance. This is what we heard from both parties, and the majority of citizens are appalled by who you THINK YOU ARE, when in reality, you are mentally ill, fearful, and lack ANY principles whatsoever.
You are being investigated, and hopefully, grand juries will indict, and you will be so judged. GET out of the USA, you really demonstrate hatred, and we have so applied that label to you. Declining, yes, and a new party will emerge, but with common sense, no criminal behavior, sorry excuses, and dumb s****/ Sick of cheating, lying, and false images. Blame yourselves, selfish/useless individuals.
Will the democ rats ever stop trying to turn AMERICA into a socialist (marxist) country,NO,because that is where their power comes from.That is now their mentality and as long as any of their kind exists this will be a problem.We patriots need to keep fighting to try and keep this cult somewhat under control.
I note that there is no effort to make the case that Alina Habba is qualified for the position, which she is not. All that matters to the author is that Trump wants something.