Howdy everyone,
I was involved in a thread of comments a few weeks ago about Blue Slips. I was surprised to learn that there were many commenters who have never heard of Blue Slips. I was surprised by this simply because it is my experience that most of the commenters here at Kos are knowledgeable about just about everything (to an impressive degree).
So, I thought I would write this diary to explain a bit about what they are and hopefully inspire as many readers as possible with a very important call to action to contact the Judiciary Committee to GET RID OF THIS ARCHAIC TRADITION because, as you may be guessing...
Democrats honor Blue Slips while Republicans don’t!
What result that does create? Completely lopsided courts that seem to always rule in favor of Republicans’ wishes, the law be damned.
I will start by saying I am NOT any kind of expert on Blue Slips, but I do know about them, how they are used and why we really need to FLOOD the Democratic Judiciary Committee members with our demand that they IMMEDIATELY start the process to fill court appointments without Blue Slips that the Republican Senators from red states will never give them.
Otherwise, all they are doing is leaving vacancies on the courts that will only be filled when the Republicans have the White House and Senate. Because you KNOW that Dems play by the “traditions and informal rules” and WILL turn in Blue Slips for their states.
What is happening in the courts is bullshit and it must be fixed.
Here is a bit of Blue Slip History:
First a quote from the Senate Judiciary Committee’s website about what Blue Slips are:
www.judiciary.senate.gov/...
What is a Blue Slip?
The Constitution requires the President to seek both the “advice and consent” of the Senate in appointing judges to lifetime positions on Federal courts. A blue slip is a piece of paper that the Senate Judiciary Committee uses to solicit views of home state senators after a person is nominated to be a Federal judge in their state. It gives meaning to the “advice” prong of the Senate’s constitutional role. The return of a blue slip usually signifies to the Committee that the President received the advice of the home state senator before the nomination was made. A returned blue slip does not necessarily mean that the home state senators will vote to confirm the nominee. However, it does indicate that the senators elected to represent that state were consulted prior to nomination and that the nominee is likely to be confirmed.
Blue Slips have been around since 1917 but there were 6 distinct periods in terms of how they were used. You can learn more about the history of blue slips at this link from Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_slip
Here is another link about Blue Slips from Ballotpedia. The quote below is also from this site.
https://ballotpedia.org/Blue_slip_(federal_judicial_nominations)
Currently, the Blue Slip tradition is used for District Court nominees but not for Circuit Court nominees. This little change was started (I think) by Chuck Grassley and then maintained by Lindsay Graham during the 116th Congress when he became the Chair of the Judiciary Committee.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who became chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee in January 2019, said he would continue the blue slip policy of his predecessor, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).[20] Click here for more information on Grassley's blue slip policy during the 115th Congress.
Graham said he would follow the blue slip tradition for district court nominees but not for circuit court nominees. He also said he would work with the White House to ensure that home-state senators could give their opinions on nominees.[20][21]
Democratic senators expressed opposition to Graham's blue slip policy. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said, "We are unilaterally disarming the Senate Judiciary Committee in a way that will have collateral damage well beyond the immediate goal of packing the courts with these nominees in a great rush.
Like many other things with the Senate, Blue Slips are nothing more than a tradition.
Not a law, not a rule, not a requirement.
And as we have seen time and time again, Republican Senators REFUSE to issue Blue Slips when a Democratic President puts forth judicial district court nominations because they are fucking terrorists who want to take over our country by all means necessary. And Democrats in the Senate let them.
Every. Single. Time.
And then guess what happens when a Republican is in the White House? The Democratic Senators turn in all their Blue Slips like good little tradition followers, thereby guaranteeing the courts are packed with right wing judges.
This must STOP!
Courts in red states are extremely lopsided with too many conservative judges and not enough (any?) nonpartisan judges (those appointed by Democratic Presidents because of what I described above).
If we allow this to continue, the courts will only get worse.
We need President Biden to fill ALL court vacancies at all levels during the next 2 years. And we need Dick Durbin and the rest of the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee to STOP waiting for Blue Slips that are NEVER going to arrive from Republican Senators!!
I urge (beg) you to write, call or text all Democratic members of the Judiciary Committee and tell them how you feel about this! I have already done so.
Here is a list of the Judiciary Committee members:
www.judiciary.senate.gov/...
From this page (linked above) there are links to each of the members’ websites (next to their pictures). From their sites you will be able to get contact information for them.
Tell them you are not a constituent in their states (unless you are), but you are writing or calling them because of their roles on the Judiciary Committee.
DEMAND THAT THEY STOP REQUIRING BLUE SLIPS AND FILL THESE CRITICALLY IMPORTANT JUDICIAL VACANCIES ASAP!
The Republicans have HIJACKED THE COURTS WITH PARTISAN HACKS. There is no disputing this. In order to protect our democracy and the constitution, Biden MUST be allowed to fill these vacancies.
Thank you so much for reading this diary and extra thanks to those who are willing to taking action on this. ❤️
