Hi,

The U.S. Senate is continuing to follow an outdated custom that was weaponized by segregationist politicians opposed to the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling: blue slips.1

The filibuster is one way Republicans can block progress, blue slips are another. Under this blue slip practice, both of the U.S. senators in a state with a judicial vacancy must return a piece of paper (a literal blue slip) giving their approval of a nominee before the nomination can move forward.

The practice is now being weaponized by Republicans to try to hold up some of the judges President Biden has nominated.2 Some Senate Democrats have shown a willingness to get rid of blue slips and get President Biden’s judicial nominees moving forward, but we have to join together and get all Senate Democrats on board.

Sign the petition to Senate Democrats: Don’t allow the Senate GOP to obstruct the appointment of President Biden’s judges!

President Biden and the Senate have confirmed federal judges at a historic rate — but if we want to take the courts back after Trump’s extremist overhaul of the bench, senators should process these nominees without delay.

There are a slew of President Biden’s judicial nominees stuck in a backlog in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Over decades, Republicans have focused on overhauling America’s courts to make them more conservative. In many ways, they’ve succeeded, especially when it comes to the Supreme Court, which has been pumping out right-wing decisions.

President Biden has been able to put a dent in the conservative project by securing the nomination of more than 80 judges.3

But we can’t allow Republicans to block the appointment of Democratic judges. Mitch McConnell will do everything he can to stall judicial confirmations, even while in the minority in the Senate. We need a Democratic coalition focused on nominating and confirming Biden’s federal judges as quickly as possible. If Senate Democrats don’t act swiftly, Biden’s judicial nominees may never get confirmed.

The filibuster is bad enough — we can’t allow blue slips to halt progress, too.

Take action: Urge Senate Democrats to get rid of blue slips and confirm President Biden’s judicial nominees!

Thanks for taking action,

Tihi and the team at Demand Progress

Sources: 

  1. People for the American Way, “One Nation, Two Systems of Justice: Why It’s Time to Reform the Blue Slip Practice,” March 2, 2023.
  2. New Republic, “The Blue Slip is the Hot New Senate Tradition that Democrats Should Abolish,” January 31, 2023.
  3. Bloomberg Law, “Democrats Urged to 'Redouble' Court Confirmations Until 2023,” November 7, 2022.

PAID FOR BY DEMAND PROGRESS (DemandProgress.org) and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. Contributions are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes. Join our online community on Facebook or Twitter.

You can unsubscribe from this list at any time.