It looks like its about to become much easier to confirm Trumps most ideological judges

[turbinetree]

The Senate’s Republican leader said on Tuesday that he will eliminate a practice that Senate Republicans used aggressively to block President Barack Obama’s judicial nominees. The practice, known as the “blue slip,” could have been eliminated while Democrats controlled the Senate and the White House. Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT), who controlled the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time refused to do so.

The blue slip process ostensibly encourages presidents to consult with home-state senators before nominating a federal judge to serve within their state. During the Obama administration, however, Senate Republicans wielded it to veto several of President Obama’s nominees.

Blue slips are forms that the Senate Judiciary Chair uses to poll home-state senators on whether they approve of a particular nominee. Historically, different chairs have used these forms differently. Under Obama, Leahy was unusually deferential to home-state senators, refusing to schedule a confirmation hearing on any nominee that did not receive a favorable blue slip. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) effectively held one federal appellate judgeship open for six years — the entire period that Johnson served in the Senate during the Obama presidency.

Other Senate Judiciary Chairs typically did not give a single senator this kind of veto power, though they often afforded some level of deference to home-state senators.

https://thinkprogress.org/it-looks-like-its-about-to-become-much-easier-to-confirm-trumps-most-ideological-judges-e26fce0d8583/

[Va Lefty]

1. Dems need to do all they can to shut down the Senate

Delay, obstruct and resist!

[Hortensis]

2. Sounds like right-wing desperation - nuclear action to get at least these accomplishments.

Aside from principle, of course, the big reason not to do this is that both parties will have lost power they badly need when they are out of the majority.

Bet metamillionare conservatives, like the Koch alliance, are pushing them to grab this very sharp, double-edged sword. Whatever else the Repubs they put in office fail to accomplish this term, they can at least stack the courts with the choices of wealthy archconservatives.

[turbinetree]

3. I think of Robert Mercer and his daughter and how dangerous they really are

coupled with Devos and others, like the Koch's, and really a court under Roberts backing these lower court judges

[Hortensis]

6. Yup. Scary. The extreme religious right wing is very much part of

that temporary alliance of wolverines and crocodiles, lots of overlap with other factions, and if I had to bet on who ended up standing the rest against a wall in the end it'd be them.

[CrispyQ]

4. Every day we get fucked a little more.

The dems dropped the ball & I don't know if they can recover. They are playing against a team that breaks all the rules, while they still play by the rules.

[oasis]

5. So NFL players are ordered to "stand" for this kind of shit?