Senator Chuck Grassley, the steadfast chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is digging in his heels against President Donald Trump's push to dismantle a long-standing Senate practice blocking Alina Habba's confirmation as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor. His resistance signals a deeper commitment to institutional norms over political expediency.
According to Daily Caller, Grassley is defending the “blue-slip” tradition, which allows home-state senators to halt judicial nominations in their states. Democratic Senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim of New Jersey have wielded this custom to stop Habba’s nomination from reaching the Senate floor.
This blue-slip practice, while arcane to outsiders, holds significant sway in the Senate’s judicial confirmation process. Grassley argues that without it, Trump’s nominees like Habba stand little chance of advancing, given the razor-thin margins in committee votes.
On Monday, Grassley took to the social media platform X to lay out his reasoning with blunt clarity. “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,” he wrote, emphasizing his role in setting up Trump’s picks for success, not a doomed fight.
His point isn’t just procedural nitpicking; it’s rooted in the reality of a divided Judiciary Committee, where Republicans hold a narrow 12-10 edge. A single GOP defection, paired with unified Democratic opposition, can sink a nominee before they even reach a full Senate vote.
Grassley’s stance isn’t about defying Trump but about playing the long game to protect the integrity of the process. If the blue-slip tradition falls, what’s to stop a future administration from steamrolling over Senate customs altogether, leaving rural and conservative voices sidelined?
Adding weight to Grassley’s position is Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a Judiciary Committee member who has publicly vowed to oppose any nominee lacking home-state senator approval. Tillis, who announced in July he won’t seek reelection, urged colleagues on August 1 to work within the existing limits rather than torch decades of tradition.
“If we don’t honor what we’ve heard Chair Grassley say is foundational and very very important to the Judiciary Committee, I think those who will be here after I leave will regret it,” Tillis stated on the Senate floor. His words carry a warning that short-term wins could unravel long-term stability in how the Senate handles nominations.
Tillis’s commitment, combined with Grassley’s leadership, paints a picture of a GOP faction more concerned with safeguarding Senate mechanisms than bending to immediate political pressure. This isn’t blind obstruction; it’s a calculated stand against a precedent that could boomerang on conservatives when power shifts.
Alina Habba, Trump’s pick for U.S. Attorney in New Jersey, finds her nomination mired in additional complications beyond the blue-slip barrier. A federal judge ruled on Thursday that she has been serving in her role unlawfully, further clouding her path to confirmation.
Habba herself has pushed back, appearing on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo” to call for Grassley and Tillis to scrap the blue-slip practice. “This tradition that Senator Grassley is upholding effectively prevents anybody in a blue state from going through into Senate to then be voted on,” she argued, framing it as a denial of her right to a fair hearing.
Her frustration is palpable, and she has a point about being stonewalled before even getting a chance to make her case. Yet, expecting senators to abandon a practice that protects their own state’s interests might be a taller order than she anticipates, especially when the numbers in committee don’t add up in her favor.
Mike Davis, a prominent Trump ally and former chief counsel for nominations under Grassley, backed the senator’s logic on Monday, pointing out the structural hurdles in the Senate. “Tillis has already said he will vote against nominees without blue slips. So these nominees will fail in their committee votes,” Davis noted, calling it a Senate-wide issue, not a personal failing on Grassley’s part.
Meanwhile, Grassley added another layer to the saga by revealing on Monday that the Judiciary Committee never even received the necessary paperwork to process Habba’s nomination. This bureaucratic snag only deepens the sense that her confirmation was doomed from multiple angles, not just Senate tradition.
In the end, this clash between Trump’s urgency and Grassley’s restraint underscores a tension between executive ambition and legislative guardrails. While Habba’s nomination hangs in limbo, the real battle is over whether Senate customs will bend to the demands of the day or stand as a bulwark against fleeting political winds, a principle worth defending even when it frustrates immediate goals.
