Grassley To Dems: Bye Bye, Blue Slips

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Grassley To Dems: Bye Bye, Blue Slips

ED MORRISSEYPosted at 8:41 pm on November 16, 2017

David Stras and Kyle Duncan, come on down. In a long-expected move, Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has scheduled nomination hearings for two Donald Trump appointees to federal appellate courts despite a refusal from home-state senators to return their “blue slips.” Grassley had complained that Democrats had gutted the judicial-nomination filibuster on their own accord but had tried to use the traditional courtesy of the blue slip as a back-door, single-person filibuster.

Those days have come to an end — at least for appellate-court nominations:

Grassley announced on Thursday that he has scheduled Nov. 29 hearings for David Stras, Trump’s nomination to be an appellate judge on the 8th Circuit, and for Kyle Duncan, nominated to serve the 5th Circuit.

“Today I’m announcing that the Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing for two circuit court nominees, each of whom has one home state senator who has not returned a blue slip containing a positive endorsement,” Grassley said from the Senate floor.