Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is pushing back on criticism from President Trump, who has railed against the “blue slip” practice that allows home-state senators to veto nominees to district courts and U.S. attorneys’ offices.
“A U.S. Atty/district judge nominee without a blue slip does not hv [have] the votes to get confirmed on the Senate floor & they don’t hv [have] the votes to get out of cmte [committee],” Grassley said in a post on the social platform X.
“As chairman I set Pres Trump noms up for SUCCESS NOT FAILURE,” he added.
Traditionally, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s chairs haven’t proceeded on federal district-level judicial and prosecutorial nominees unless both senators representing the state where those districts are located return blue-slip documents signing off on presidential nominees.
Trump last month was forced to withdraw the nomination of his former defense attorney, Alina Habba, to serve as a federal prosecutor in New Jersey, after the state’s Democratic senators, Cory Booker and Andy Kim, opposed her nomination.
Habba has been serving in the post in an interim capacity, but a federal judge ruled last week that she has been doing so unlawfully.
The ruling led Trump to ramp up pressure on Grassley to get rid of the “blue slip” rule.
“I have a Constitutional 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,” Trump wrote Sunday in a post on his Truth Social platform.
“This is because of an old and outdated ‘custom’ known as a BLUE SLIP, that Senator Chuck Grassley, of the Great State of Iowa, refuses to overturn, even though the Democrats, including Crooked Joe Biden (Twice!), have done so on numerous occasions,” Trump continued.
“Chuck Grassley should allow strong Republican candidates to ascend to these very vital and powerful roles, and tell the Democrats, as they often tell us, to go to HELL!”
Grassley noted in another post early Monday that Habba “was withdrawn as the President’s nominee for New Jersey U.S. Atty on July 24 &the Judic cmte never received any of the paperwork needed for the Senate to vet her nomination.”
“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 Senate Republican added.
A spokesperson for the 91-year-old senator, who has been in office since 1981, responded to Trump’s attack on the blue slip custom last month by noting Grassley has moved several of Trump’s U.S. attorney nominees in Democratic-led states.
“Chairman Grassley has already successfully moved U.S. Attorneys through committee who have received blue slips from Democrats, including Senators Warner and Kaine of Virginia and Klobuchar and Smith of Minnesota. When a nominee comes out of committee all 100 senators have a say on the nomination and part of their consideration is based on the home state senators’ input,” the spokesperson said.
