Trump Seeks to Get Rid of Senate’s Blue Slip Tradition: What to Know

President Donald Trump has called for an end to the Senate tradition known as the blue slip, despite resistance from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).

The blue slip is a tradition that allows senators from the state in which a judicial nominee has been selected to approve or block the nomination.

For example, a nominee for a Pennsylvania federal court would need to obtain the blue slip approval from Pennsylvania’s two senators, John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Dave McCormick (R-Pa.).

Trump said on Aug. 25 that blue slips “make it impossible” for him as president to appoint a judge or a U.S. attorney.

Article 2 of the Constitution requires the Senate to provide “advice and consent” for executive nominees, but blue slips are a relatively recent innovation. Still, it may be difficult to dislodge this tradition in the collegiality-based Senate.

Here is what to know about the blue slip and Trump’s objection to it.

Trump’s Opposition to Blue Slip

The issue came to the forefront after Trump’s nomination of Alina Habba to serve as U.S. attorney in New Jersey was blocked by the state’s U.S. senators, Cory Booker and Andy Kim, both Democrats.

Habba also opposes the blue slip tradition.

During an interview on Fox Business’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” Habba said the tradition “effectively prevents anybody in a blue state from going through into Senate to then be voted on.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has also said he will not return his blue slip for U.S. attorney nominees for his state.

In an Aug. 24 post on Truth Social, Trump said, “I have a Constitutional Right to appoint Judges and U.S. Attorneys, but that RIGHT has been completely taken away from me in States that have just one Democrat United States Senator.”

Trump named Habba to the role in an acting capacity while her nomination was pending before the Senate. In July, judges ruled that Habba could not continue to serve in her acting role until the Senate approved her nomination.

A court-ordered replacement was immediately fired by the administration. Attorney General Pam Bondi named Habba first assistant to the U.S. attorney general for New Jersey and, therefore, the acting U.S. attorney.

Republicans Resist Change

Despite direct challenges from Trump, who has described the blue slip as “an old and outdated ‘custom'” on Truth Social, Grassley has defended the tradition.

“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 an Aug. 25 post on X.

“The 100 yr old ‘blue slip’ allows home state senators 2 hv input on US attys & district court judges In Biden admin Republicans kept 30 LIBERALS OFF BENCH THAT PRES TRUMP CAN NOW FILL W CONSERVATIVES,” Grassley said in another post on X.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) also said he supported the custom.

“Getting rid of the blue slip is a terrible, short-sighted ploy that paves the path for Democrats to ram through extremist liberal judges in red states over the long-term,” Tillis wrote in a Aug. 25 post on X. “It’s why radical liberal groups have been pushing to get rid of the blue slip for years—Republicans shouldn’t fall for it.”

Ross Baker, political science professor at Rutgers University, told The Epoch Times that the Senate “is feeling particularly powerless” in the face of Trump’s strong assertion of executive authority.

He said senators “will probably oppose, pretty militantly, an effort to scrap the blue slip.”

What Is Next?

Trump indicated on Aug. 25 that his administration will take legal action over the use of blue slips.

“I think I’m going to be filing a lawsuit pretty soon. … We’re going to be filing it through the Department of Justice,” Trump said in the Oval Office.

What that lawsuit would look like is unknown, and it is legally murky, according to experts.

Ilya Shapiro, director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute, told The Epoch Times in an email, “I don’t think such a suit would go very far.”

Shapiro referenced the court’s history of giving each house of Congress broad authority to govern itself.

During the Biden administration, lawsuits against the mask mandate of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) were rejected on such grounds.

“Courts would likely find this to be a ‘political question’ and thus nonjusticiable—the same way that suits to force a hearing or vote on a judicial nomination (see Merrick Garland) would go nowhere,” Shapiro wrote.

Lawyer Norm Eisen told The Epoch Times that Trump is setting himself up for failure if he goes through with a lawsuit.

“This is a matter of internal Senate procedure as to how they ‘advise and consent,'” he said. “The courts almost always reject attempts to get them involved in the internal workings of Congress on constitutional and other grounds. That is what will happen when the lawsuit is filed here.”

The Justice Department declined to comment.