Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley isn’t caving to pressure to end the precedent of deferring to home-state senators on district court and U.S. attorney nominees — even after being called out over the weekend by President Donald Trump and his thwarted pick for top prosecutor in New Jersey.
“As chairman I set Pres Trump noms up for SUCCESS NOT FAILURE,” the Iowa Republican wrote in a social media post Monday.
“A U.S. Atty/district judge nominee without a blue slip does not [have] the votes to get confirmed on the Senate floor & they don’t [have] the votes to get out of cmte,” he added.
Trump has tried to pressure Grassley for weeks to get rid of the so-called blue slip, the practice that allows senators to block a home-state district court or U.S. attorney nominee they don’t support.
Republicans got rid of the same precedent for appeals court nominees during Trump’s first term, but they have so far rebuffed Trump’s calls for them to do the same for district court and U.S. attorney nominations. Many GOP senators believe that if they bend to Trump’s demand now, it would only come back to bite them later, when they find themselves back in the minority and unable to stop nominees from a Democratic administration.
But the conflict with the White House got new fuel poured into it late last week when U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann ruled that Alina Habba “is not lawfully holding the office of United States Attorney” in New Jersey and has been in the position without legal authority since July 1.
Trump had tried to keep Habba in charge of the office after her interim appointment expired. That effort included withdrawing her Senate nomination, which was already stalled because of opposition by New Jersey Democratic Sens. Cory Booker and Andy Kim.
In a Truth Social post Sunday night, Trump doubled down on his attempts to pressure Grassley to nix the blue slip, which the president called an “old and outdated ‘custom.’”
Trump continued: “The only candidates that I can get confirmed for these most important positions are, believe it or not, Democrats! 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!”
Habba also criticized Grassley and Sen. Thom Tillis by name Sunday morning, calling on them to revisit the blue slip precedent and allow her nomination and others to go through.
“This tradition that Senator Grassley is upholding effectively prevents anybody in a blue state from going through into Senate to then be voted on,” Habba said on “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo.”
“I would say to Senator Tillis and Senator Grassley, you are becoming part of the issue,” she added. “You are becoming part of the antithesis of what we fought for four years.”
Tillis, a North Carolina Republican and a member of the Judiciary Committee, said recently that he would continue to honor the blue slip for district court and U.S. attorney nominations even if the precedent was rescinded. That means he would oppose all relevant nominees who lacked support from their home state senators.
Grassley also noted in a subsequent X post Monday that the administration had withdrawn Habba’s nomination and that the committee “never received any of the paperwork needed for the Senate to vet her nomination.”
Spokespeople for Grassley and Tillis didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
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