Congressional Black Caucus vows to oppose Senate Judiciary’s consideration of two judges over ‘blue slip’ policy

The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) has vowed to oppose the Senate Judiciary Committee’s consideration of two judges over what is called the “blue slip” policy.

In a letter addressed to current Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), CBC chairman Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) called on Durbin to use his “power as the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee” to institute several reforms immediately before the caucus can consider the nominations of Jerry Edwards Jr. to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana and Brandon Long to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

President Biden announced the nominations of Edwards and Long in June.

In the Senate, a blue slip is an opinion written by a senator from the state where a federal judicial nominee resides. Both senators from the nominee’s state are sent a blue piece of paper that the Judiciary Committee uses to survey their views on the nominee.

The blue slip rule, precedent upheld by Senate tradition, has historically given a home state senator the ability to stop a lower-court nominee by refusing to return the blue slip to the committee. But the chairman of the committee decides how strictly the precedent is upheld, and enforcement has varied.

Horsford called on Durbin to waive the blue slip custom for U.S. attorneys and marshals, mandate the return of blue slips only from a home-state senator for each nominee and require senators who refuse to return a blue slip for a nominee to explain why they oppose the nominee as a “measure of accountability and to ensure the opposition is nondiscriminatory,” according to the letter.

In addition, Horsford also called on Durbin to create a process that involves CBC members with “a jurisdictionally vested interest in the nomination.”

Horsford pointed to Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley’s decision to eliminate the blue slip policy for appellate judges, saying that move made “historic nominations like Nancy Abudu’s possible.” Abudu is the first Black woman to sit on the 11th Circuit overseeing Alabama, Florida, and Georgia.

The blue slip policy has discriminatory roots; it was used by segregationist lawmakers to undermine progress made to guarantee civil rights for Black Americans. Lawmakers created the process to prevent school integration after Brown v. Board of Education, according to the Alliance for Justice.

In asking Durbin to end the policy, he argued that the blue slip is “a fundamentally undemocratic vestige of Jim Crow”, saying its use has had a substantial impact on the Black community.

“Decisions made by federal judges play a critical role in determining the scope of individual civil rights and liberties. Judges matter, and the opinion of a few can impact the lives of many,” Horsford said.

Ultimately, Horsford told Durbin the blue slip “will undermine our joint endeavor to make a dramatic mark on the judiciary.”