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Eugene

(61,900 posts) Fri May 26, 2017, 01:34 AM May 2017

Senate Republicans likely to change custom that allows Democrats to block judicial choices

Source: Washington Post

Senate Republicans likely to change custom that allows Democrats to block judicial choices

By Robert Barnes and Ed O'Keefe May 25 at 3:03 PM

Senate Republicans are threatening to change a custom that allows Democratic senators to block some judicial choices from their states, in an effort to speed along a conservative transformation of the federal judiciary.

Leaders are considering a change to the Senate’s “blue slip” practice, which holds that judicial nominations will not proceed unless the nominee’s home-state senators signal their consent to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Republicans say they will make the change if Democrats throw up blanket opposition to President Trump’s nominees.

Adherence to the custom has waxed and waned, depending on the views of Senate leaders. But the rule was strictly observed during the Obama administration, and GOP opposition to President Barack Obama’s nominees partly explains why Trump entered office with more than 120 judicial vacancies to fill.

Removing the blue-slip obstacle would make it much easier for Trump’s choices to be confirmed. Although Trump and Senate Republicans have clashed early in his presidency, they agree on the importance of putting conservatives on the federal bench.

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6 replies

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Senate Republicans likely to change custom that allows Democrats to block judicial choices (Original Post) Eugene May 2017 OP

McConnell didn't hesitate a moment to go nuclear on a SCOTUS nominee Azathoth May 2017 #1

Pretty much right. Obama should have made a recess SCOTUS appt &revealed the Russian interference, Alice11111 May 2017 #5

Yep, it drives me crazy. Kentonio May 2017 #6

Of course they will. JDC May 2017 #2

Of course. No surprise. Would we expect civility or respect from these bot Repubs? Alice11111 May 2017 #3

Why don't they just run the Constitution Ilsa May 2017 #4

Azathoth

(4,610 posts)

1. McConnell didn't hesitate a moment to go nuclear on a SCOTUS nominee

Reply to Eugene (Original post)

Fri May 26, 2017, 02:11 AM

May 2017

The one occasion when a filibuster is supposed to be a sacred right of the Senate and a bulwark against tyranny, he brushed it aside like lint.

Frankly, Democrats deserve this. They were facing an enemy that would stab them in the eyes as they slept, yet they were enamored of their own reasonableness and high-mindedness and maturity. They dicked around for years with the GOP, whining, whining, whining in the face of unprecedented blanket obstruction, until they finally made the smallest of changes to the filibuster to allow Obama to at least fulfill the most basic obligation of filling vacancies in the lower courts.

They should have abolished the filibuster in 2008. Irreversible single-payer healthcare would have been done on day one, and SCOTUS would have been sane for the rest of our lifetimes. Now we get to watch as a neo-fascist cult slowly does to us what we failed to do to them. Make no mistake, the filibuster will be gone by the time Trump leaves office.

Alice11111

(5,730 posts)

5. Pretty much right. Obama should have made a recess SCOTUS appt &revealed the Russian interference,

Reply to Azathoth (Reply #1)

Fri May 26, 2017, 04:34 AM

May 2017

but it would look partisan, McConnell promised all out war, he thought probably Hillary would be elected....TheRepubs don't give a shit how it looks (Montana election), they just bully right through like the Terminator to get what they want, fairness be damned.

Kentonio

(4,377 posts)

6. Yep, it drives me crazy.

Reply to Azathoth (Reply #1)

Fri May 26, 2017, 06:47 AM

May 2017

We KNEW what they were like, they made no secret that they were going to obstruct everything we did, and it was damn obvious that they'd ignore all the rules and conventions when they got back into power. But no, we had to play nice and hand it all over to them.