Pink Slip For Blue Slips

"You're fired" was the tag line for President Trump on his TV show The Apprentice.  Earlier this week, though, it was senator Grassley of Iowa who got to use that line in a very important way.  Grassley announced that the Senate Judiciary Committee would no longer honor the tradition of blue slips, the right of a judicial nominee's home state senators to hold up hearings on the nomination.  Long ago, it was believed that a senator from the nominee's home state would have more information about that nominee, so the Senate started an informal process of delaying hearings until the home state senators returned paperwork (called blue slips) approving of the nominee.  The process continued on and off for many decades.  Now, one nominee for the court of appeals from Minnesota was being held up by, of all people, senator Al Franken.  The nominee is a widely respected member of the Minnesota Supreme Court, and there was no real opposition to his confirmation.  Nevertheless, Franken tried to use the blue slip like a filibuster to prevent there ever being a hearing on the nomination.  Senator Grassley decided this week that he would no longer wait for Franken's blue slip to be returned.  It won't be long before the nominee gets confirmed.

The funny thing about all this is that most likely, Franken himself could not be confirmed were he nominated for a judicial post.  Franken has too many women accusing him of sexual misconduct for that approval to happen.

The end of the use of blue slips announced by Grassley will also expedite the approval process for the other court nominees made by the President.  The huge wave of Trump appointments to the judiciary will shortly become a tsunami.