Calls to End Senate Traditions Blocking Biden's Judicial Nominees Grow Louder
33 national progressive groups have urged Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Dick Durbin to stop honoring the blue slip rule, which Republicans have been abusing to block President Joe Biden’s court picks. Republicans haven’t been signing blue slips for many of Biden’s court picks, effectively tanking their nominations in the committee as Durbin continues to uphold the tradition. The committee’s blue slip rule is not an official Senate rule. Instead, it’s a courtesy unique to the Judiciary Committee, where senators simply turn in a blue slip of paper signaling their support for giving a hearing to a judicial nominee from that senator’s state.