McConnell wants to end practice of allowing senators to block appeals court judges
By Karoun Demirjian September 13 at 8:27 PM
The top Republican in the Senate is ready to formally dispense with a long-running practice that gives senators an early chance to block federal judicial nominees who would have jurisdiction over their states — at least at the appeals court level.
In an interview with the New York Times this week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he wants to get rid of individual senators’ power to block nominees to the appeals courts — the dozen powerful circuits just one notch below the Supreme Court — from being considered.
“My personal view is that the blue slip, with regard to circuit court appointments, ought to simply be a notification of how you’re going to vote, not the opportunity to blackball,” Mr. McConnell said on the Times’ “The New Washington” podcast, referring to the custom senators from affected states need to sign off on a physical blue slip before a nominee can formally start the congressional vetting process.
McConnell did not advocate ending the blue slip process for district court nominees, whose jurisdictions are entirely within one state.
Senate Republicans have been hinting for months they may change the blue slip rules if Democrats stood in the way of Trump’s nominees. Fairly strict adherence to the blue slip process is one of the reasons the Senate had so much difficulty confirming former president Barack Obama’s judicial nominees, leaving the federal bench with over 120 vacancies when President Trump took office.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/senate-gop-leader-wants-to-end-practice-of-allowing-senators-to-block-circuit-court-judges/2017/09/13/d10aa028-98d9-11e7-87fc-c3f7ee4035c9_story.html
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Enjoy the ride down, Mitch.
Fuck you Mitch, and fuck you republicans! 