Trump fights the Senate on Blue Slip System for legal appointments

President Donald Trump attacked the Senate for prevented his favorite candidates from being confirmed in key positions, but legislators and familiar people with the process say that the Senate is not necessarily to blame.

Trump reproached the tradition of the “Blue Slip” Senate, an unwritten rule demanding candidates from the judge, the American lawyer and the American marshal to obtain the approval of the state senators before being confirmed.

He said that the Senators of the Blue State would only be “Democrats in Green Light or perhaps weak Republicans”. The President called Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, president of the Senate’s judicial committee, to abolish the practice, and he threatened to continue.

But Grassley and other Republicans go beyond their position according to which blue shifts make an essential part of the confirmation process. Blue shifts have been used for over a century. The former presidents have confirmed many candidates in the context of the system, which suggests that other factors contribute to Trump’s struggle to ensure blue tickets from the Democrats.

Trump tells Grassley to tell the Democrats `Go to Hell ” on judicial candidates blocked in the Senate

Senator Chuck Grassley is seen in the American Capitol after a Senate lunch. (Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, included via Getty Images)

Trump threatens to continue on “the agreement of the gentlemen”

Trump and his allies increased attacks on the blue slip process this week, accusing Grassley of blocking nominees now.

“It is because of an old obsolete” custom “known as Blue Slip, that Senator Chuck Grassley, of the great state of Iowa, refuses to overthrow,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The president threatened to continue what he said to be an “gentlemen’s agreement”, although it is not clear that the government would continue and on what reason.

“It is not based on the law, and I think it is unconstitutional, and I will probably file a prosecution on this subject very soon,” Trump told journalists in the oval office.

Asked about the possible trial and why Trump’s candidates in the Blue States are struggling with confirmation, the White House told Fox News Digital in a statement that the deduction must be addressed.

“The Democrats of the Senate carried out a historic obstruction campaign against President Trump and his candidates,” said White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson. “The partisan and obstructionist agenda of the left only hurts the American people and it must end.”

“Disturbing” model of the Senate bypass

Trump has appointed his former Personal Defense Lawyer Alina Habba as an “temporary” American lawyer, who has a 120-day limit that federal judges have the capacity to extend under federal vacancy laws if no one was confirmed by the Senate at the post at that time.

The judges have chosen to extend Trump’s candidates, as in the case of Jay Clayton in the South District of New York. But in an unusual decision, the federal judges of New Jersey rejected Habba.

The judges selected someone else, that Trump and the prosecutor General Pam Bondi quickly dismissed. Trump and Bondi then used a series of legal maneuvers to reinstall Habba to another temporary term, but a federal judge ruled on unconstitutional movements. The Trump administration appeals to this decision in a case that could now go to the Supreme Court and force the judges to weigh on what has become a model at the end of Trump around the Senate.

Alina Habba says she will not be intimidated ‘

Alina Habba speaks to media members outside the west wing of the White House in Washington, DC, Monday, March 24, 2025. (Samuel Corum / Sipa / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

John Sarcone, in the North District of New York, faced a situation similar to that of Habba, and he is now “American lawyer. Bill Essayli, in the California central district, which has taken a pro-Trump vocal position in the midst of high-level expulsion cases in his district, also went from” temporary “to”. temporary term of 210 days.

Carl Tobias, professor of law at the University of Richmond, said that bypass solutions challenge the spirit of the Constitution, which says that candidates must be confirmed “with the advice and consent” of the Senate.

“It is good to have this meticulous examination of the judicial committee then on the ground, and therefore I hope they could come back to something like that, but I am not sure that it will happen, and therefore I think it is disturbing,” Tobias told Fox News Digital.

How to get a blue briefs from the other part

The administration must engage with the Senate during the appointment process, including by consulting very early with the senators of the original state on the possible candidates.

Former President Joe Biden obtained blue leaves from the opposing parties for 49 nominated, including 27 American lawyers, while Trump’s first administration was able to obtain confirmations for almost all the American lawyers that the president has appointed.

The Blue Slip, to senators, is a crucial negotiation tool, including the founder of the project of article III, Mike Davis, does not disappear, despite the intensification of Trump’s objections. Davis, a fervent supporter of Trump, was a lawyer for the Senate Judicial Committee and supervised appointments under Grassley in the administration of anterior Trump.

“It does not disappear. Why would he do it? Why would the senators abandon their power? They will not do so,” Davis told Fox News Digital, adding that the blue shifts in the Senate are “Sacred China that will never break”.

Habba blamed meaning. Cory Booker, DN.J., and Andy Kim, Dn.J., (not illustrated) for refusing to give an approval of the blue assessment to his appointment to his appointment (Fox News)

The verification process

Applicants must also provide the Senate Judicial Committee with a questionnaire, verification of the antecedents of the FBI and financial disclosure. A source familiar with the process told Fox News Digital that the committee had not received Habba’s paperwork to start checking it.

Habba said she couldn’t start the process because democratic senses. Cory Booker and Andy Kim of New Jersey would not give the approval of the blue assessment. It is not known if and when the Trump administration approached the pair of senators about Habba.

Habba, like Trump, blamed Grassley.

“The Blue Slip tradition prevents a candidate from going to the point of bringing this case to the committee and the Senate. Do you know who can get rid of? You @chuckgrassley,” wrote Habba on X.

She said to Grassley “it’s a leadership moment, no deviation” and that the president should not “do the dirty work of Thom Tillis, Corey Booker and Andy Kim”.

The Booker and Kim offices did not respond to a comment request.

Grassley defends bipartisanat

Grassley made a tear on social networks this week, defending his decision to maintain blue slips, on which the chairman of the committee has discretionary power.

“The candidate of the American district judge without blue shift does not have the votes to be confirmed on the Senate soil and they do not have the votes to get out of CMTE,” wrote the 91 -year -old senator. “As president, I prepare the names of Pres Trump to succeed and not failure.”

Grassley reprimands Trump pressure to “have courage” to speed up appointments

President Donald Trump speaks with journalists at the Oval Blanche Office on Friday August 22, 2025, in Washington, DC (Jacquelyn Martin / AP Photo)

Senator Thom Tillis, RN.C., who is one of several Republicans who will not vote for a candidate who has not been approved by senators in the original state, underlined a declaration on social networks when asked for a comment from Fox News Digital.

“President Grassley is a conservative in principle who wants to keep the radical liberals out of the bench. Getting rid of the blue shift is a terrible and short -sighted ploy which opens the way for democrats to be through liberal judges in the long -term red states,” wrote Tillis on X.

Are Democrats to blame?

Trump has so far obtained Blue Slips from the opposing party for four nominees. Davis said Trump faces a unique level of democrats.

“Each white house does what it can to hire the opposition party, but the Democrats have clearly indicated that they are not interested in working with President Trump, so it is understandable that his goal is elsewhere,” said Davis.

Senator Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., for example, refused to give a blue slip to Clayton, the former president of the Securities and Exchange Commission. But Clayton’s ability to win the voting of federal judges in the South New York district allowed him to serve as an American lawyer without confirmation.

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Senator Dick Durbin, D-ill., Senate’s judicial committee classification, has further complicated the confirmation process by putting a grip on the candidates of American lawyers, which slows down considerably, but does not completely block the process.

Vice-president JD Vance, then Senator, did the same for Biden’s candidates towards the end of the last administration.

Trump’s fight with the upper chamber should evolve, especially since the higher courts weigh on the appointment of Habba, which is currently invalid, according to the decision of the district court this month. The United States Court of Appeal for the third circuit has established an information calendar in the case which extends until October, but ultimately the Supreme Court could also compete on the question of whether Trump’s way of bypassing the Senate is constitutional.