(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) urged Senate Republican leaders to delay a hearing for the nominee for the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, currently scheduled for tomorrow, Wednesday, October 24th, despite the Senate being in recess. Because Republicans have abandoned the long-standing bipartisan process, Senator Murray will not return the so-called blue slip and instead is urging Senate Republican leaders, including Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, to restart the nomination process at the start of the new Congress and work with her and other Democrats in the standard bipartisan approach.
“Senate Republicans have been trampling on long-standing Senate norms in order to rush extreme conservatives onto the courts as quickly as they can, and this needs to end. So I am not going to be complicit in this latest rushed process to load the courts with Trump nominees in the lame duck session and I will not be returning the blue slip that signals my approval of this process. I hope that Republican leaders step back from this mad dash, step back from the shameful partisan path they have taken on what has always been a bipartisan process—and that we can work together next Congress to consider the President’s nominees in the bipartisan and considered way that has worked before.”
