(NewsWorthy.news) – Ahead of the highly anticipated presidential election of 2024 that promises a rematch between Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican former president Donald Trump, a top Democrat has voiced support for potentially reinstating a rule surrounding judicial nominations.
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, who also serves as the Senate Judiciary Chairman, recently expressed his willingness to consider returning to a regulation that would permit state senators to reject controversial judicial nominees. The discussion is being revamped as Trump’s potential reelection becomes a greater threat.
Durbin’s comments were made during a mark-up within the Judiciary Committee, at which time GOP senators expressed irritation that judicial nominees for the circuit court have stalled in the approval process thanks to home senators who are divided on the nominees. The so-called “blue slips” protocol of home senators approving or opposing judicial nominees was used until 2017, when the committee chairman stopped its practice.
Durbin, though, has said that he is “ready to open this conversation” about reinstating the rule “on a bipartisan basis.” The Illinois lawmaker added that, if blue slips are going to be given greater precedence in the appointment of circuit court judges, it should be done “prospectively” and without “knowing the outcome” of elections that hold the potential to “change the presidency.”
While Durbin and his colleagues consider the possibility of adjusting the blue slip protocol, some members of the GOP are concerned that Democrats will use the rule to routinely reject judicial nominations should Trump be reelected. According to former Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley’s former chief counsel, Mike Davis, the plan is “nonsense.”
He explained that Durbin’s debate is motivated by a worry that Trump will regain the White House in November and that Republicans will regain control of the Senate. Similarly, GOP strategist Ron Bonjean speculated that Democrats “are preparing to lose” both the presidency and the Senate majority. He also compared the discussion about blue slips to an “insurance policy.”
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