“It is right that this kind of ‘blue vote veto’ should have been abolished a long time ago, for it will only slow down the process and aggravate the political stalemate.”
Alina Habba was President Donald Trump’s personal attorney. He appointed her interim U.S. attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) District of New Jersey. Critics argued that the appointment was overtly political and reflected the fact that she is very much a Trump loyalist.
Habba also vowed to “make New Jersey red” during a podcast interview, which didn’t go over well.
Habba’s term ended on July 24, and NJ judges refused to renew her temporary status. President Trump withdrew her nomination so he could reappoint her in a temporary position. She couldn’t do that as a nominee.
However, Senator Grassley told President Trump that the Senate didn’t have the votes to appoint her. Why? Because she didn’t have a blue slip.
Now, 91-year-old Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the U.S. Senate’s president pro tempore, insists Trump’s nominees for U.S Attorney and District Court judgeships need consent forms known as blue slips from their local home-state senators in order for the Senate to take up their nomination. Since then, a judge has put her on hold.
No blue state senator will give a Trump nominee a blue slip.
Senators really like those blue slips. But we have tyrants in our judiciary, so how is this a good thing for Republicans?
Booker and Kim Say No to Habba! Shocker!
Since New Jersey Senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim were opposed to Habba’s nomination, the Senate never acted on it before the expiration of Habba’s interim appointment.
Trump and Habba are angry but Grassley won’t give in. It’s not just him; the entire Senate refuses to give it up.
It means Trump can never appoint a judge in a blue state unless it’s a leftist judge they approve of.
The blue slip is likely unconstitutional but it has been the tradition for about 100 years.
“A U.S. Atty/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,” Grassley wrote in one of his characteristically terse posts. “As chairman I set Pres Trump noms up for SUCCESS NOT FAILURE.”
He also noted that the committee was given minimal information about Habba’s nomination and little time to process it.
These are the same people who whisked many radical judges right through for Joe Biden and Barack Obama and voted for them.
However, Grassley said the blue slip process allowed them to keep 30 liberal [leftist] judges off the bench. These are positions that Trump can now fill with 30 conservatives. So, it seems like a Catch22.
Let the Supreme Court tell us if it’s constitutional. It doesn’t appear to be, but the constitutionalists have to decide.
Last week, Pennsylvania federal judge Matthew Brann ruled that Habba’s appointment had been improper for several reasons, and declared that she didn’t have the authority to continue prosecuting cases in New Jersey. Brann also issued an immediate stay of his own ruling pending appeal to the Third Circuit, so Habba’s status remains in limbo.
President Trump announced that he will file a lawsuit against the blue slip practice. The Senators won’t like it and it will drag on. Meanwhile, the blue states want more communist judges.
