In layman's terms: it means Dems aren't going to let Republicans deny committee hearings to Biden's appeals court nominees by refusing to turn in a blue slip -- literally a blue slip of paper -- signaling they're cool with proceeding with a nominee from that senator's home state.
Blue slips are a courtesy in the Judiciary Committee, not an official rule, back when courtesy was *a thing.*
The idea is that a senator should get to sign off -- or not sign off -- on proceeding with a president's judicial nominee from their home state.
Republicans abused the F outta blue slips under Obama.
They refused to turn in blue slips for lots of his judicial nominees, just because he was Obama.
Then-chairman Patrick Leahy upheld the blue slip rule, meaning those judicial nominees didn't get hearings.
Dems basically got steamrolled because of that.
Then Trump won, and with Republicans running the Senate, they decided to mess with the blue slip rule some more.
Then-chairman Lindsey Graham decided to give hearings to Trump's appeals court picks regardless of whether Dems turned in blue slips for them. More steamroll.
I remember at least 2 instances (there were prob more) where Dem senators explicitly did not turn in blue slips for Trump's appeals court picks from their home states, because they were strongly opposed to them, and Graham gave them hearings anyway.
Graham did stick with the blue slip rule for district court nominees tho.
So if a Dem didn't turn in a blue slip for one of Trump's district court nominees from their home state, Graham wouldn't give that nominee a hearing.
So, back to the present. Now-chairman Durbin is gonna stick with what then-chairman Graham did.
Biden's appeals courts nominees will get hearings regardless of GOP opposition via blue slips.
District court nominees will not.
For a little taste of how bad things got with Republicans abusing blue slips under Obama, here's a 2015 piece about Pat Toomey blocking *a judicial nominee he supported* by not turning in a blue slip.
Well well. Conservative Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) is testifying in support of Deb Haaland in her Senate confirmation hearing next week.
Smart move by her team. Will make it harder for Senate GOPers in there trying to frame Haaland as "radical."
Why are Republican Sens. Steve Daines and John Barrasso -- both of whom will play a role in Haaland's confirmation hearing -- attacking her as "radical" for wanting to protect public lands as Interior Secretary?
That Daines and Barrasso are suggesting a Native American woman is "radical" for wanting to protect public lands is also incredibly offensive + tone deaf given the U.S. government's violent history of forcibly removing Native Americans from their lands. huffpost.com/entry/gop-sena…
Been hearing from more Montana tribal leaders not happy with Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) for vowing to block Biden's Interior Secretary nominee, Native American congresswoman Deb Haaland, because she is "radical." huffpost.com/entry/gop-sena…
“Representative Haaland is not a radical," said Andrew Werk, president of Fort Belknap Indian Community Tribal Council in MT. "This is about who’s qualified for the job. And she definitely is.”
He noted Daines didn’t mention MT tribes at all in his statement attacking Haaland.
“It just makes my blood boil,” said Floyd Azure, chairman of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes in MT.
Sen. Daines' efforts to tank Deb Haaland's nomination "just go to show that Native Americans are just second-rate citizens here in this country."
Republican senators are attacking Biden's interior secretary nominee Deb Haaland as "radical" because... she wants to protect public lands, air. huffpost.com/entry/gop-sena… w/ @c_m_dangelo
It turns out the GOP senators going after Deb Haaland for being "radical" for wanting to protect public lands are the same GOP senators raking in $$$ from fossil fuel companies that want to drill on public lands. huffpost.com/entry/gop-sena…
What's so "radical" to Republican senators about Haaland, other than being a Native American congresswoman determined to tackle climate change and protect public lands?
Nancy Pelosi plans to introduce a bill honoring Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman and other officers with the Congressional Gold Medal -- Congress' highest honor. huffpost.com/entry/nancy-pe…
Pelosi just sent a Dear Colleague letter to all House members, inviting them to cosponsor her bill.
Marjorie Taylor Greene is now speaking on the House floor, as the House begins the process for removing her from her committee assignments.
"I"m a very proud wife... I'm a mother of 3 children.... I'm a very regular American."
Greene is now talking about her process of not trusting the news or the government, so in 2018 "I started looking up things on the Internet" and learned about conspiracy theories like QAnon.
"That is absolutely what I regret," Greene says of embracing conspiracy theories.
"If it weren't for the Facebook posts I 'liked' in 2018, I wouldn't be standing here today and you couldn't accuse me of anything wrong."