Senate Republicans still not biting as Trump renews crusade against blue slips

WASHINGTON (CN) — Senate Republicans are largely sticking to their guns on an arcane procedural measure that has allowed Democrats to block some of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees — and which the president has repeatedly said should be eliminated.

And while Trump renewed his complaints against the so-called Senate blue slip in recent days, some of his closest allies in the upper chamber have stopped short of joining his calls to do away with the practice, which has long been viewed as a tool for senators to halt unqualified nominees in their home states.

The president, for months, has railed on the blue slip tradition, which he has called a “hoax” and framed as an impediment to his ability to appoint U.S. attorneys and federal district court judges. And he was further incensed this week after Alina Habba, his interim U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, stepped down following a court ruling that she was serving illegally.

Habba, formerly Trump’s personal lawyer, had been stymied in the Senate after New Jersey’s Democratic senators refused to return blue slips for her nomination, effectively killing her chances at Senate confirmation.

The White House had attempted an end-run around Congress with a legal gambit that installed her as an interim U.S. attorney.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office after Habba’s resignation, Trump said his administration was “losing a lot of great people” to the Senate’s blue slip tradition. “We have about seven U.S. attorneys who are not going to be able to keep their jobs much longer because of the blue slip,” he said.

Following the news conference, Trump was caught on a hot mic further slamming the Senate practice.

“You know I can’t appoint anybody,” the president said. “Everybody I’ve appointed, their time has expired. … Then they’re in default and we’re losing.”

The White House can name acting U.S. attorneys while the Senate deliberates on a permanent candidate, but the law limits their terms to 120 days. The Trump administration, however, tried to subvert the statute with Habba — then acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey — by withdrawing her nomination from Congress and firing her court-appointed replacement. The administration then appointed Habba as assistant U.S. attorney for the district, elevating her to the primary role by default.

While Trump renewed his criticism of the Senate blue slip, Republicans in the chamber have been reticent to consider doing away with the century-old practice.

“Chuck Grassley’s been very clear on it,” Missouri Senator Eric Schmitt told Courthouse News outside the Senate chamber. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has long defended the blue slip and resisted calls to scrap it.

Missouri Senator Josh Hawley demurred on questions about eliminating the blue slip, saying he didn’t have “anything new to say” and framing the issue as Senate Democrats refusing to work with the White House on judicial nominees.

“Typically, an administration gets to appoint a U.S. attorney,” he told Courthouse News. “They may have to compromise on somebody — my understanding is that a number of my Democrat colleagues are saying, ‘we’re not going to return a blue slip on any Trump nominee.’”

In the case of Habba, New Jersey Senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim contended that the White House had largely cut them out of the nomination process. Kim told Courthouse News over the summer that the Trump administration had been “incredibly nontransparent” and they wouldn’t let the senators interview other candidates.

Still, Hawley claimed Tuesday that perceived obstruction from Democrats would create “an enormous amount of pressure” on lawmakers to establish a “carve-out” of the blue slip process for U.S. attorney nominees.

It wouldn’t be the first time that the Senate has altered the blue slip tradition in recent history. Grassley himself, as chair of the Judiciary Committee under the first Trump administration, stopped honoring blue slips for circuit court nominees. The senator reasoned at the time that lawmakers from one state should not be able to veto appointees to appellate courts, which have jurisdiction over multiple states.

The circuit court carve-out persisted through the Biden administration, much to the chagrin of Republicans. The Senate continues to honor blue slips for U.S. attorney and federal district court nominees.

However, Grassley, under the second Trump administration, has rejected the idea that the Senate could abandon blue slips.

Reacting to news of Habba’s resignation Monday, a spokesperson for Grassley’s office pointed out that U.S. attorney and district judge nominees without blue slips “don’t have the votes to get through committee or pass on the Senate floor.”

And the Judiciary Committee chairman has pushed back on Trump’s criticism of the blue slip, including social media posts in which the president referred to Democratic senators utilizing the practice as “sleazebags.”

Grassley said in July that he was “offended” by Trump’s comments.

Habba stepped aside as interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey on Monday, after the Third Circuit ruled that she was serving in the role illegally. She said in a statement that she would remain at the Justice Department as an adviser to Attorney General Pam Bondi.

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