Dem Groups Are Ratcheting Up the Judicial Wars--And They're Targeting Fellow Democrats

The Senate is about to cross a procedural Rubicon. And a trio of organizations believe a price should be paid for it.

SAM STEIN
05.08.18 9:00 AM ET

In a rare political volley in the judicial wars, a trio of outside Democratic-aligned groups is going after members of its own party in a newly launched ad campaign.

The campaign, spearheaded by the new outfit Demand Justice, demands that Democratic senators commit to voting en masse against any of Donald Trump’s judicial nominees should Senate Republicans advance one without the formal sign-off of his or her home-state senator.

Such a sign-off is known, in congressional parlance, as the blue slip. Though it was always an informal courtesy, for decades it was treated as a procedural backstop for the confirmation of federal judges. But this past October, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), with his eyes on stacking the judiciary with conservative justices, announced his intention to dispense with the concept. A month later, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) followed suit.

Because of Sen. Al Franken’s abrupt resignation, the Senate in full has never formally voted on a nominee who made it through the committee without a blue slip (the Minnesota Democrat was gone by the time David Stras was confirmed to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals). But such a scenario is likely to present itself his week, when the Senate is expected to consider the nomination of Michael Brennan, a Milwaukee lawyer, to serve on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

Brennan does not have a blue slip from one of his home-state senators, Tammy Baldwin. But what’s further enraged Democrats is the history of the post he is set to occupy. For years, that seat on the Seventh Circuit was held open because Wisconsin’s other senator, Republican Ron Johnson, refused to return his own blue slip for President Barack Obama’s nominee, Victoria Nourse. Brennan himself was quoted as applauding the resulting vacancy.

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