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President Trump on Thursday yet again criticized the “blue slip” practice, which allows home-state senators to veto district court judge and U.S. attorney nominees.
Trump, in a post on his Truth Social platform, said he has eight “Highly Respected” U.S. attorney nominees that “will not be confirmed for their positions in various Highly Consequential States only because they’re Republicans.”
The president added that Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have convinced Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to honor the “blue slip” rule.
“These GREAT people’s careers have been badly hurt by the Radical Left Democrats, using an old and ridiculous custom strictly to their advantage,” Trump said. “What a shame!”
The Senate Judiciary Committee chair traditionally does not proceed with such nominations until both senators representing the state where the districts are located return blue-slip documents approving them.
Trump has criticized the practice in the past, including in August, when he said his constitutional right to appoint judges and U.S. attorneys “has been completely taken away from me” in states with at least one Democratic Senator.
When reached for comment, a spokesperson for Grassley directed The Hill to his post on the social platform X in August, in response to the president’s most recent criticism of the custom.
Grassley said that any U.S. attorney and 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.
“As chairman I set Pres Trump noms for SUCCESS NOT FAILURE.”
U.S. attorney nominees that are located in states with at least one Democratic senator include Jay Clayton in the Southern District of New York and Erin Creegan in New Hampshire.
In July, Trump had to withdraw the nomination of Alina Habba, his former defense attorney, to be U.S. attorney for New Jersey after the state’s Democratic senators, Andy Kim and Cory Booker, opposed it.
The administration then sought to keep her in the role without Senate confirmation, but a federal judge ruled in August that she was unlawfully serving as the Garden State’s top federal prosecutor.
