WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s fight against a long-standing tradition used by senators in the process of confirming a president’s district court and U.S. attorney nominees kicked into a new gear this week when he vowed to take legal action against the practice known as a “blue slip.”
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump railed against use of the so-called blue slip, which gives extra weight to the opinions of home-state senators when considering district court and U.S. attorney nominees. He asserted it means he can only get “Democrats or maybe weak Republicans” confirmed for roles and said he would soon file a lawsuit in response.
“This is based on an old custom,” Trump said. “It’s not based on law, and I think it’s unconstitutional, and I’ll probably be filing a suit on that pretty soon.”
The president didn’t expand on who a potential lawsuit would be brought against, but it comes after he ramped up his criticism over the weekend of the practice and the current Republican chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.
In a post on his social media account, Truth Social, on Sunday night, Trump slammed Grassley, asserting he “refuses to overturn” use of the tradition.
“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!” the president wrote.
Grassley took to X to hit back and defend his approach to the tradition, arguing that a nominee who does not have the sign-off of the senators representing the state they are tapped to serve would be a signal they would not have enough support in the committee overall to move forward in the process.
“A U.S. Atty/district judge nominee without a blue slip does not hv the votes to get confirmed on the Senate floor & they don’t hv the votes to get out of cmte,” Grassley wrote. “As chairman I set Pres Trump noms up for SUCCESS NOT FAILURE.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee chair went on to make the case in a separate post that use of the practice during former Democratic President Joe Biden’s time in office allowed Senate Republicans to keep “30 LIBERALS OFF THE BENCH THAT PRES TRUMP CAN NOW FILL W CONSERVATIVES.”
The tradition — long recognized by the Senate Judiciary Committee, which plays a key role in the confirmation process for a president’s picks for federal judges — allows home-state senators to informally express whether they would approve or veto a district court or U.S. attorney nominees for their state. Traditionally, a chair of the committee may choose not to advance a nominee who does not have the sign-off of both senators representing the state in which they are tapped to fill a role.
The official website for U.S. federal legislative information notes the concept of the blue slip has existed for more than a century. The practice, however, is not formally codified or included in Senate Judiciary Committee rules, which means the chair of the panel theoretically has discretion over how influential the home state senators are in the process and whether their disapproval would actually keep a nominee from moving forward.
Amid the president’s revived focus on the issue, Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who recently announced his retirement amid a high-profile feud with Trump, defended Grassley in a post on X and argued ending the practice would ultimately backfire on the GOP.
“Getting rid of the blue slip is a terrible, short-sighted ploy that paves the path for Democrats to ram through extremist liberal judges in red states over the long-term,” Tillis wrote.
In blasting the practice on Monday, Trump mentioned he was able to see a pick of his get approved in New York through the “court system,” rather than through Senate approval. But his fresh wave of criticism against the tradition comes after a judge ruled his former lawyer, Alina Habba, has been unlawfully serving in her role in New Jersey as its top federal prosecutor.
New Jersey’s two Democratic senators opposed Habba to serve as the state’s U.S. attorney.
Habba over the weekend slammed the blue slip practice herself in an interview with Fox News.
The president first took aim at the practice and Grassley weeks ago, telling the Republican senator to have the “courage” to “step up” and break the “‘Blue Slip’ SCAM.”
Grassley responded at the time saying he was “offended” and “disappointed” by the president’s comments and that it resulted in personal attacks against him.
A spokesperson for Grassley also added at the time that the chairman had “already successfully moved U.S. attorneys through committee who have received blue slips from Democrats, including Senators [Mark] Warner and [Tim] Kaine of Virginia and [Amy] Klobuchar and [Tina] Smith of Minnesota.”
Trump made getting judicial picks placed on the bench a priority in his first term, securing the confirmation of 234 of his choices for the federal judiciary. Former President Joe Biden then followed suit with the attention placed on the issue, holding a White House event to celebrate the confirmation of 235 of his judicial nominees to the federal judiciary just before he left office.