Trump Presses Republicans to End Blue Slip Check on Nominees

President Donald Trump is urging Senate Republican leaders to abolish the process customary for vetting US attorney and district court nominees that requires support from their home-state senators.

Trump called on Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to eliminate what’s known as the blue slip process as several of his picks to serve as US attorneys in states with Democratic senators remain stalled.

“He should do this, IMMEDIATELY, and not let the Democrats laugh at him and the Republican Party for being weak and ineffective,” Trump said in a Truth Social post Tuesday night.

Grassley has previously said he intends to maintain the longtime tradition in the Senate Judiciary Committee’s vetting process for lower court and US attorney picks. That’s at odds with Trump’s desire to fill the limited pool of judicial vacancies and overcome resistance from Democratic senators over his US attorney nominees.

The committee’s Republican majority led by Grassley during the first Trump administration had eliminated home-state senator sign off for circuit court nominees, conveyed through the return of a document known as the “blue slip.”

The blue slip process came under fire from progressives under Biden. They wanted Democrats to ditch the practice in order to expedite vetting and get more trial court picks through to confirmation.

Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) promised to stand by the practice unless he determined a senator’s refusal to support a nominee was based on their race, gender, or sexual orientation.