Blumenthal: Trump Judicial Nominees are "Ideologically Extreme and Patently Unfit for the Bench"

[WASHINGTON, DC] – Today U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) sharply rebuked Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee for abandoning the longstanding “blue slip” process by forcing consideration of President Trump’s nominee to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, Minnesota Supreme Court Justice David Stras.

The withholding of a blue slip by one or both senators from a nominee’s home state has traditionally stopped the nomination from proceeding. The practice is a time-honored Senate process meant to incentive meaningful consultation and cooperation between the White House and Senate on judicial nominees. Even though Stras did not receive a positive blue slip from U.S. Senator Al Franken (D-MN), his nomination was considered at yesterday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

Following his remarks, Senator Blumenthal left the meeting, preventing a quorum from being reached and delaying several votes on judicial nominees for at least one more week.

In his remarks, Blumenthal said, “Many of [these nominees] have been ideologically extreme and patently unfit for the bench. To abandon the blue slip process not only betrays a tradition that is solidly rooted in the unique knowledge that each of us has about nominees from our respective states, but also the consideration that we should bring – the deliberate, and careful consideration – to each of these nominees…The blue slip policy, Mr. Chairman, as a matter of general practice should be firmly and consistently supported.”

Video of Blumenthal’s full remarks is available for download here.

During the Obama Administration, 18 nominees were blocked from even being considered after they failed to receive one or both blue slips from their home-state senators. Chairman of the Judiciary Committee Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) publicly committed to upholding the blue slip tradition in an op-ed in the Des Moines Register in 2015, and in conversations with the outgoing Chairman, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT).

The 62 nominees President Trump has put forward to fill federal judgeships include Steve Grasz and Brett Talley, the first two nominees since 2006 to have received unanimous “not qualified” ratings from the American Bar Association. 

President Trump has also nominated Stephanos Bibas, who was confirmed last month despite suggesting that convicted criminals be subject to corporal punishment; Jeff Mateer, who has called transgender children “Satan’s plan”; and Justice Don Willett, who touted himself as “the consensus, conservative choice… pro-life, pro-faith, pro-family, pro-liberty, pro-Second Amendment, pro-private property rights, and pro-limited government.”

According to a recent Associated Press analysis, President Trump’s nominees have been 91 percent white, and 81 percent male.