Lambda Legal: Chairman Grassley Chucks 100-Year Old, Bipartisan Tradition To Force Through More Trump Judges

(Washington, DC, February 15, 2018) – Today, Sharon McGowan, Director of Strategy at Lambda Legal, issued the following statement after the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s party-line vote in support of the nomination of Michael Brennan to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit:

“In 2015, Chairman Grassley penned an editorial praising the Senate Judiciary Committee’s tradition of considering judicial nominees ‘only after both home-state senators have signed and returned what’s known as a “blue slip,”’ emphasizing that it was a long-standing Senate practice “designed to encourage outstanding nominees and consensus between the White House and home-state senators.”  The Senator Grassley from 2015 – a man who claimed to honor the blue slip tradition and vowed to preserve it -- was nowhere to be found today.  This morning, Chairman Grassley took a 100-year old, bipartisan tradition and chucked it out the window in order to push forward more judicial nominees offered by President Trump and White House Counsel Don McGahn.  In doing so, Chairman Grassley disregarded and disrespected Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin, who opposed Mr. Brennan’s nomination after the White House bypassed Wisconsin’s bipartisan Federal Nomination Commission.  Chairman Grassley’s fealty to President Trump and his willingness to abandon his principles in order to advance this administration’s court-packing agenda will forever be a stain on his long record of public service.”