Still, Committee for Justice President Curt Levey said Senate Democrats are likely to slow the confirmation process by exploiting debate time at a record level. He said Democrats also could try to defeat nominees “by abusing the blue-slip privileges granted to the two senators from each nominee’s home state.”
“If Democrats go that extreme, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley [Iowa Republican] may be forced to curtail the 100-year-old blue-slip tradition,” he said.
The blue slip is a tradition that allows senators from a nominee’s home state to block a nomination for virtually any reason.
Mr. Levey noted that five of Mr. Trump’s first six expected nominees to federal appeals courts are younger than 50.
“The large number of judicial vacancies gives President Trump a historic opportunity to move the federal courts in the right direction — towards constitutionalism and away from judicial activism — in just four years,” Mr. Levey said. “Fulfilling this opportunity will require a steady stream of judicial nominations from the White House and a brisk pace of hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee.”
Read more in The Washington Times.