Judiciary Dems call on GOP to reconsider decision on blue slips

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are asking Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to reconsider his decision to do away with so-called blue slips for two of President Trump’s circuit court nominees.

In a letter sent to Grassley on Friday, all nine of the Judiciary Committee’s Democratic members said that nixing the blue slip would further erode bipartisan consensus and cooperation on judicial nominations, as well as the ability of senators to protect home-state interests.

“Our respective caucuses have pointed fingers for some time about who is to blame for the erosion of bipartisanship on judicial nominations, culminating with the elimination of the sixty-vote threshold for Supreme Court nominees earlier this year,” the letter reads.

{mosads}

“On the issue of blue slips, however, it is indisputable that during Democratic Administrations, Democratic Chairs of the Judiciary Committee respected Republican Senators’ blue slips.”

Blue slips – a time-honored tradition in the Senate – allow a senator to block a lower-court nominee by declining to return a sheet of paper, known as a blue slip, to the judiciary panel.

On Thursday, however, Grassley said that he had scheduled hearings for two of Trump’s circuit court nominees: David Stras, who has been tapped to be an appellate judge on the 8th Circuit, and Kyle Duncan, who has been nominated for the 5th Circuit.

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) has declined to return a blue slip for Stras’ nomination. Another committee member, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) has not returned a positive blue slip for Duncan’s nomination though has said he is not opposed to holding a hearing for the nominee.

Senate Republicans have encouraged Grassley to do away with the blue slip, arguing that Democrats have used the longstanding precedent to inappropriately obstruct Trump’s judicial nominees.