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Then-Judicial President Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) cited the Democrats’ delays when he eliminated blue cards for circuit court candidates in 2017 while preserving the prerogative of the home state senators to oppose candidates for district courts. But the issue has been a point of contention since, particularly when Senate Republicans confirmed 54 circuit court judges as part of a larger march to reshape the federal bench with new Tory appointments.
Democrats have turned blue cards to more than 85 district court candidates over the past four years, the Democratic committee aide noted – a high number that leaves the new majority optimistic that the GOP would take an approach similar. The blue-slip process generally grants disproportionate power to senators from the opposing White House party who represent states with vacancies in Federal Court by giving them the power to reject the president’s choices.
Three of the 50 Republican senators currently represent the states Biden won in November: Susan Collins of Maine, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania,
“We expect Republicans to also act in good faith and work with the Biden administration to fill vacancies in district courts in the Red and Purple states,” the aide said.
Durbin’s decision to keep blue cards for district court candidates is not necessarily final and could change if district court openings accumulate. (There are currently 54 vacancies.) But for now, that promises to frustrate progressives who want to see the tradition completely dissolved.
“I think [blue slips] should be discarded. I think they should be removed for both circuits and districts, ”said Christopher Kang, chief counsel for Demand Justice, a liberal judicial advocacy group.
“You end up with two avenues of justice, where Americans living in a state represented by a Republican senator might have very different judges than one who lives in a state represented by Democratic senators from the home state,” he said. he added.
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