WASHINGTON — Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Wednesday he is “offended” by President Donald Trump publicly pressuring him to ditch an obscure committee tradition so Trump can confirm more of his judges.
In brief remarks at the start of a hearing, Grassley responded to Trump posting on social media late Tuesday that Grassley should “IMMEDIATELY” get rid of the committee’s so-called blue slip rule, a custom unique to the judiciary panel that prevents any U.S. district court nominee or U.S. attorney nominee from getting a hearing unless both of that nominee’s home-state senators turn in a literal blue slip of paper to the committee, signifying their support for that nominee.
It’s not a hard rule, but Republican and Democratic chairmen of the committee have upheld the tradition to varying degrees when they’ve been in the majority.
“Last night, I was surprised to see President Trump on Truth Social go after me and Senate Republicans over what we call the ‘blue slip,‘” Grassley said Wednesday. “The people in real America don’t care about what the ‘blue slip’ is but, in fact, it impacts in their states the district judges who serve their communities.”
“I was offended by what the president said, and I’m disappointed that it would result in personal insults,” he said.
It’s not clear why Trump is suddenly peeved that Grassley is honoring the blue slip tradition. In his loud and lengthy social media post, he suggested he can’t pick people he wants for court seats or U.S. attorney posts in California, New York, New Jersey, Illinois and Virginia.
“He should do this, IMMEDIATELY, and not let the Democrats laugh at him and the Republican Party for being weak and ineffective,” Trump said of Grassley. “The Democrats have broken this ridiculous custom on us, it’s time that we break it on them. Chuck, I know you have the Courage to do this, DO IT!”
A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Republicans absolutely abused blue slips when Joe Biden was president, and before that, when Barack Obama was president. During Trump’s first administration, Democrats returned more than 130 blue slips and helped confirm 84 district judges in states with at least one Democratic senator. By contrast, more than two years into Biden’s presidency, Republicans had returned just 13 blue slips.
The idea behind the committee’s tradition is that senators should have a say in who presidents pick for lifetime federal judgeships based in their states. But blue slips have been an obstacle for presidents in both parties, as it’s prevented them from advancing certain district court picks who don’t have support from the senators in those states.
Incredibly, for all the times that Republicans have caved to Trump’s demands, senators’ commitment to keeping their judiciary panel’s blue slip rule appears to be nonnegotiable.
“I don’t sense any rush to change it,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters. He defended the custom and suggested Republicans are more interested in “looking at options” for speeding up votes on nominees on the Senate floor.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters that he’d ask Trump to “back off” his calls on Grassley to ditch blue slips.
Another member of the judiciary panel, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), scoffed at Trump for wanting to scrap the blue slip tradition for U.S. attorney nominees.
“Whoever advised him on that policy has no brain on this subject,” Tillis told reporters.
Progressive groups routinely raged at Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) for not ditching blue slips when he chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee and when Biden was president. Durbin maintained that he was always looking for “common ground” with Republicans to get nominees through.
On Wednesday, he told Grassley he appreciated his defense of the blue slip rule in response to Trump attacking him over it.
“Maybe it’s inside baseball and too much minutiae, but it really relates to the relationship between the minority and the majority on this committee and the basic rights that we have given for district court judges to the senators that we serve with,” Durbin told Grassley during the committee hearing. “I thank you for saying what you did this morning.”
“When they’ve asked me about this outside this room, I’ve said that you’ve given your word, as I have as well,” he said. “I hope it continues to be the case.”
“Yes,” Grassley replied.