The Senate has one big job in the remaining months of President Joe Biden’s term: getting his judges confirmed and balancing out Donald Trump’s court packing. Republicans are doing what they do best—obstructing—but there’s a fix for that if Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin will use it.
Biden’s behind in getting his judicial nominations through the Senate, especially on district judges, according to Brookings. Biden will need “19 more district confirmations to match Trump’s 177,” by the end of his term. But Republicans aren’t playing, and Durbin is still honoring the blue slip courtesy for these district court nominations.
Blue slips are the pesky, and archaic, tradition of honoring home state senators’ wishes in picking judges. They are literally the blue pieces of paper senators provide to the committee to show they’re in agreement with the administration on nominees from their home states. Blue slips have always been a courtesy, never a constitutional requirement or even a Senate rule. Durbin has lifted the requirement for appeals court judges, but kept it in place for district courts.
True to form, Republicans have weaponized the process, just like they did during President Barack Obama’s tenure.
The most recent example is in North Carolina, where Sen. Thom Tillis is fighting the administration over two district appointees because he disagrees with Biden on an appellate nominee. Appellate courts review procedures and trial court decisions to make sure things are fair and proper laws are applied. Not filling these vacancies means the Middle District of North Carolina “will face some substantial challenges,” Chief Judge Catherine Eagles told Bloomberg, due to very large judge caseloads.
“While our efforts will slow down the development of a civil backlog, the longer the vacancies last, the harder it will be,” Eagles said. In other words, justice will be delayed—and thus denied—for North Carolinians.
In Mississippi, GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith held up Biden’s nomination of Scott Colom from the day it was announced on Oct. 14, 2022. Colom’s nomination expired in January of this year, and he hasn’t been renominated. The vacancy he was intended to fill has been open for more than 1,000 days thanks to Hyde-Smith. Her reason for opposing the nomination was that Colom had support from progressive organizations. The state’s other senator, Roger Wicker, returned his blue slip and supported the nomination.
Even the least conservative of the GOP senators—Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski—is resisting approving district judges. The state was recently rocked by the resignation of one of its three district judges—Joshua Kindred, a Trump appointee—over sexual misconduct allegations. Another of the three seats has been vacant since 2021, leaving just one active judge and five “senior” judges who are semi-retired for the state.
Murkowski and her colleague Sen. Dan Sullivan told the Anchorage Daily News that they are “moving cautiously to fill both open seats.”
These vacancies in Alaska and Mississippi have created a judicial emergency in district courts in those states according to the Judicial Conference. The conference defines an emergency as where a combination of caseload and length of vacancy puts a strain on the courts, and where there is only one active judge.
Among the nine states that have judicial emergencies, seven of them are in states with Republican senators: Alaska, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Texas. Few of these vacancies have nominees at this point.
Biden and the Democratic Senate can solve that in his remaining months. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told the New York Times he has a goal: “Putting more judges in before Dec. 31, even though we think we’re going to win the election, is a very high priority. … I’m going to do everything I can.”
And, of course, put an end to those pesky blue slips.
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Biden’s behind in getting his judicial nominations through the Senate, especially on district judges, according to Brookings. Biden will need “19 more district confirmations to match Trump’s 177,” by the end of his term. But Republicans aren’t playing, and Durbin is still honoring the blue slip courtesy for these district court nominations.
Blue slips are the pesky, and archaic, tradition of honoring home state senators’ wishes in picking judges. They are literally the blue pieces of paper senators provide to the committee to show they’re in agreement with the administration on nominees from their home states. Blue slips have always been a courtesy, never a constitutional requirement or even a Senate rule. Durbin has lifted the requirement for appeals court judges, but kept it in place for district courts.
True to form, Republicans have weaponized the process, just like they did during President Barack Obama’s tenure.
The most recent example is in North Carolina, where Sen. Thom Tillis is fighting the administration over two district appointees because he disagrees with Biden on an appellate nominee. Appellate courts review procedures and trial court decisions to make sure things are fair and proper laws are applied. Not filling these vacancies means the Middle District of North Carolina “will face some substantial challenges,” Chief Judge Catherine Eagles told Bloomberg, due to very large judge caseloads.
“While our efforts will slow down the development of a civil backlog, the longer the vacancies last, the harder it will be,” Eagles said. In other words, justice will be delayed—and thus denied—for North Carolinians.
In Mississippi, GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith held up Biden’s nomination of Scott Colom from the day it was announced on Oct. 14, 2022. Colom’s nomination expired in January of this year, and he hasn’t been renominated. The vacancy he was intended to fill has been open for more than 1,000 days thanks to Hyde-Smith. Her reason for opposing the nomination was that Colom had support from progressive organizations. The state’s other senator, Roger Wicker, returned his blue slip and supported the nomination.
Even the least conservative of the GOP senators—Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski—is resisting approving district judges. The state was recently rocked by the resignation of one of its three district judges—Joshua Kindred, a Trump appointee—over sexual misconduct allegations. Another of the three seats has been vacant since 2021, leaving just one active judge and five “senior” judges who are semi-retired for the state.
Murkowski and her colleague Sen. Dan Sullivan told the Anchorage Daily News that they are “moving cautiously to fill both open seats.”
These vacancies in Alaska and Mississippi have created a judicial emergency in district courts in those states according to the Judicial Conference. The conference defines an emergency as where a combination of caseload and length of vacancy puts a strain on the courts, and where there is only one active judge.
Among the nine states that have judicial emergencies, seven of them are in states with Republican senators: Alaska, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Texas. Few of these vacancies have nominees at this point.
Biden and the Democratic Senate can solve that in his remaining months. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told the New York Times he has a goal: “Putting more judges in before Dec. 31, even though we think we’re going to win the election, is a very high priority. … I’m going to do everything I can.”
And, of course, put an end to those pesky blue slips.
Campaign Action