GOP Sen Resists Trump’s Pressure To End Practice Blocking Alina Habba’s Confirmation

Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley is holding firm against pressure from President Donald Trump to upend a Senate practice partly responsible for blocking Alina Habba from securing confirmation as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor.

Trump has called on Grassley for weeks to scrap the upper chamber’s “blue-slip” tradition allowing home-state senators to veto judicial picks nominated to serve in their states. Democratic New Jersey Sens. Cory Booker and Andy Kim have used the custom to prevent Habba’s nomination by Trump for the state’s U.S. Attorney post from being considered by the upper chamber.

Grassley, who leads the committee responsible for confirming Trump’s judicial nominees, argued Monday that without the blue slip tradition the president’s picks will fail to advance out of the judiciary panel.

“A U.S. Atty/district judge nominee without a blue slip does not hv the votes to get confirmed on the Senate floor & they don’t hv the votes to get out of cmte,” Grassley wrote on the social media platform X. “As chairman I set Pres Trump noms up for SUCCESS NOT FAILURE.”

Senate Republicans wield a 12-10 majority on the Judiciary Committee, allowing just one GOP senator to block a nominee from advancing to the Senate floor if they join with Democrats in voting “no.” Republican North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, who sits on the judiciary panel, has committed to voting against any judicial nominee that is opposed by a home-state senator. The North Carolina Republican announced his decision