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37 Yale L. & Pol'y Rev. Inter Alia 1 (2018)

handle is hein.journals/interal37 and id is 1 raw text is: YALE LAW & POLICY REVIEW INTER ALIA Senate Blue Slips and Senate Regular Order Carl Tobias* Justice Neil Gorsuch's Supreme Court confirmation process exacerbated the striking divisiveness, rampant partisanship, and stunning paybacks that have systematically plagued the federal judicial selection process. The Senate basically ended any true debate when the Republican majority peremptorily detonated the nuclear option for Supreme Court nominees. This measure, which the Senate implemented by a majority vote, limited filibusters regarding all judicial nominees, allowing a simple majority ballot to confirm a nominee. The requirement of sixty votes for cloture to end debate had supplied critical protection for the Senate minority, particular senators from states that experienced vacancies, and the constituents whom they represent. One century-long practice that does remain is the blue slip. Now that the Senate minority has very few protections, the blue slip acts as a crucial safeguard. Under Senate tradition, whenever the President submits a federal district or appeals court nominee, the Judiciary Committee Chair sends a blue slip of paper to each senator who represents the state in which the nominee will sit, and those senators can delay the nomination by refusing to return the slip. Blue slip retention comprises the major protection in the selection process for senators, especially those who are not in the chief executive's party. However, confusion attends the construct's application. Therefore, recent changes in the blue slip practice by Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), powerful support for Grassley's perspectives regarding slips from many Republican senators, and new threats by other Grand Old Party (GOP) * Williams Chair in Law, University of Richmond School of Law. I wish to thank Margaret Sanner for valuable suggestions, Jane Baber and Emily Benedict for valuable research and editing, the Yale Law & Policy Review Inter Alia editors for exceptional research and editing, Leslee Stone for extraordinary processing, as well as Russell Williams and the Hunton Williams Summer Endowment Fund for generous, continuing support. Remaining errors are mine alone.

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