Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday that he’s still holding out hope that Republicans can find “common ground” for advancing President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees ― without axing the committee’s so-called blue slip rule, which allows a single senator to sink a judicial nominee from their home state.
It’s not an official Senate rule. It’s a committee tradition, a senatorial courtesy. Durbin could do away with it today if he wanted to. How does it work? Senators literally turn in a blue piece of paper to the committee to signal their support for advancing a nominee from their state. If both of a nominee’s senators turn in their blue slips, the nominee gets a hearing. If only one turns in a blue slip, or neither, the nominee doesn’t get a hearing.
Durbin would have good reason to stop with this tradition. Republicans ignored it for appeals court nominees in 2017 when they were in the majority, and Donald Trump was…