'Damaging precedent': Conservative federal judge installed without consent of home-state senators

‘Damaging precedent’: Conservative federal judge installed without consent of home-state senators
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/02/27/dangerous-first-conservative-judge-installed-after-vetting-by-only-two-senators/?utm_term=.b0ef573d7e41

Seattle attorney Eric Miller was confirmed as a judge on the country’s most liberal appeals court this week without the consent of either home-state senator, a break from tradition that Democrats say Republicans will come to regret.

Historically, senators from the state where a federal judiciary nominee lives may submit opinions, known as “blue slips,” or choose not to return them.

Before this week, a nominee had never been confirmed without the support of at least one home-state senator, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif), the ranking Democrat on the judiciary committee, said in a statement on Wednesday.
But neither Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) nor Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) returned blue slips on Miller’s nomination to serve on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Nonetheless, Miller was confirmed Tuesday on a 53-46 vote, allowing Trump to continue to move toward a more conservative federal judiciary, one of his key campaign promises. The vote to confirm Miller’s lifetime appointment followed a brief hearing, which took place during a congressional recess and with only two Republican senators present.

Murray called the confirmation “a dangerous first.”

“Abandoning the blue slip process and instead, bending to the will of a president who has demonstrated time and time again his ignorance and disdain for the Constitution and the rule of law is a mistake,” she said on the Senate floor.

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