The Senate just made it easier for Trump to appoint federal judges

Sarah Binder, senior fellow in Governance Studies, explains the Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee’s upcoming hearing on President Trump’s nominee for a seat on the Federal Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. By holding this hearing, Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is ignoring the “blue slip” practice by which senators could block the nominations of a judge from his or her home state. Binder explains what surpassing the blue slip process means for this nomination and the precedent it sets for future nominations.

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