Congress

Dems fight to Trump-proof the federal judiciary

Published

2 years ago

December 21, 2024

Democrats on Friday hit a major milestone, confirming more judges under President Joe Biden than Republicans did in President-elect Donald Trump’s first term. It deprives Trump of putting a bigger conservative stamp on the judiciary — and Democrats will have leverage to continue fighting next year.

Senate Democrats, despite a narrow majority, have approved 235 of Biden’s judicial picks, eclipsing the 234 judicial nominations Trump got through in his first term. Biden has now appointed a range of judges amounting to about a fourth of the overall federal judiciary.

In a move that could further dent Trump’s judicial impact even with a GOP Senate majority, Democrats are poised to put pressure on Republicans to maintain a practice that requires sign-off from a state’s two senators for lower-level spots on the federal bench.

Top Judiciary Committee Democrats who vet judicial nominations, like outgoing Chair Dick Durbin of Illinois, declined to drop the “blue slip” tradition over the past two years, despite pressure from the party — and are now urging Republicans to do the same.

Asked if he intends to maintain the practice, incoming Senate Judiciary Chair Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) responded simply: “Yes.”

That’s a boon for Democrats. Because of population size, there are more judicial slots in larger blue states like California, New York and Illinois — ones that will require two Democratic sign-offs for the Trump administration to fill. Plus, a deal that would have expanded the number of federal judgeships and given Republicans slots to fill is on the verge of getting a Biden veto.

“There are way more district judges in Democratic states than there are in Republican states,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a senior member of the Judiciary Committee. “For us to let the district court blue slip go would create a real structural problem over the long haul, so Chairman Durbin did absolutely the right thing to hold that.”

Democrats hope filling district court slots with less conservative picks will provide a first line of defense against Trump administration policies as the party braces for the incoming president and other Republicans to enact a multitude of new policies, via executive orders and otherwise.

Court decisions could have critical implications for abortion rights, student loan forgiveness, climate change and more. While cases can rise up to appeal courts and beyond, district courts tend to have the first say on challenges to federal policies.

Even Republicans begrudgingly acknowledge Durbin has run an efficient and aggressive operation in filling vacancies over the last four years.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is a member of the Judiciary Committee.

“Dick Durbin has sadly been very effective. He’s been very good. I wish he hadn’t been,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), a member of the Judiciary Committee, said in an interview. “He’s run the committee really, really efficiently.”

Democrats largely cleared the decks: There are just 36 current federal court vacancies and 11 future ones as judges announce planned retirements. By comparison, Trump began his first term in 2017 with an astounding 112 vacancies and 15 future ones.

Biden started his term with 49 current vacancies and five future ones to consider for the federal bench.

Trump may, of course, have the most consequential last laugh at the Supreme Court. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito — both in their 70s — are on the retirement watch list. Nominating replacements for either or both of those conservative justices would offer Trump the chance to further cement a decades-long conservative mark on the court. And they’re not the only justices on the retirement watch list; progressive groups launched an unsuccessful pressure campaign following Trump’s win for liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor to step aside, wary the 70-year-old could create another opening for Trump to tilt the court further rightward.

He already got to fill three vacancies during his first term, meaning about half the court would be his appointees if either or both justices retire.

Plus there are other large states that see a lot of openings, like Texas and Florida, where Trump will have two GOP senators to sign off on his preferred picks.

“I can’t wait for President Trump to nominate some more judges — to me that was one of his great legacies,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a senior member of the Judiciary Committee.

Trump could have come in with a slate of additional judicial openings to fill under a bipartisan deal struck this term, but it now looks unlikely. The Senate earlier this year unanimously approved a bill to add 66 district court judgeships over the next three presidential terms, with advocates saying they wanted to clear it before the 2024 election so neither Republicans nor Democrats would know which party stood to immediately gain from it. But House Republicans waited until after the election to pass it, and Biden has indicated he plans to veto it.

But another deal on judges did make it through — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer struck an agreement with Republicans to let four appeals court slots stay open until next year in exchange for GOP senators allowing quick consideration for a dozen district court judges.

Democrats have said they didn’t have the support for those confirmations anyway. And one of those appeals court jurists later backed out of his stated intention to retire, prompting anger from Republicans.

Despite that, half a dozen GOP senators told Blue Light News they came out on top of that agreement. Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), a Judiciary member who’s close to Trump, called it a “good deal.”

Senate Democrats are no stranger to criticism for how they’ve handled judicial openings, but Durbin noted they managed to break Trump’s record despite a narrow number advantage in the chamber.

“Two years, we’ve had a tied Senate and a tied committee, [and] we reported out almost 100 judges,” Durbin said. “Pretty good, huh? You can’t say yes, but I’ll say it for you: Pretty damn good.”

Republicans insist they’re raring to go at confirming more of Trump’s judicial picks — and they’ll take cues from Durbin as they aim to leave no slot unfilled.

“All I can say is: I hope Republicans will look at what he’s done in these last four years,” Hawley said.

Congress

Todd Blanche won’t get Thursday vote in Senate Judiciary Committee

Published

4 hours ago

July 30, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The Senate Judiciary Committee has abandoned plans to advance Todd Blanche’s nomination as attorney general Thursday, according to a committee spokesperson.

The decision comes as Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) continue to push the Justice Department to revise a controversial settlement agreement between President Donald Trump and the IRS. A “no” vote from either senator would effectively sink Blanche’s nomination.

The two senators met Wednesday with Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) but did not announce any breakthrough.

“Chairman Grassley works to set President Trump’s nominees up for success in committee, not failure,” said the spokesperson, who declined to be named. “Senators Cornyn and Tillis want written assurances from the Department of Justice regarding the Trump-IRS settlement. Tomorrow’s markup is postponed as work continues to secure sufficient support in committee to favorably report [Blanche], who is highly qualified for the job.”

The meeting could still be rescheduled if Cornyn and Tillis are placated, but any delay threatens Senate GOP leaders’ plans to confirm Blanche before the chamber adjourns for its summer recess next week.

Congress

White House pitches Senate GOP on ‘tight’ party-line bill focused on military, farm aid

Published

8 hours ago

July 29, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

White House officials urged Senate Republicans on Wednesday to quickly adopt a spending blueprint for a narrowly focused party-line spending bill, but they struggled to quash GOP skepticism about the administration’s vision.

White House budget director Russ Vought stressed during the private lunch meeting with Senate Republicans that the next package passed under the filibuster-skirting budget reconciliation process should include only President Donald Trump’s most urgent priorities — particularly defense spending and aid for farmers.

Vought said Republicans should not seek to cut spending or otherwise offset the deficit impact of the tens of billions of dollars the Trump administration wants enacted, nor should they attempt to raise the debt limit.

“It should be tight,” he told reporters as he exited the lunch. “It should be for the defense needs that we need now, for the [agriculture] needs that we need now. And to get this as straight a shot to the president’s desk as possible.”

That approach comports with the $95 billion framework the House adopted last week before lawmakers there left Washington for their summer recess. But Vought and other White House officials faced pushback in the room Wednesday on a variety of issues.

Majority Leader John Thune warned afterward that he doesn’t believe he has the votes for the narrow budget resolution the Trump administration is contemplating. He said there was a disconnect between the narrow bill the White House is seeking and the political challenges it creates.

Those challenges revolve around “vote-a-rama” — a feature of the reconciliation process that allows Democrats to force a series of amendment votes that could put GOP senators in tough spots. The more committees the budget resolution “instructs” to deliver legislation, the more opportunities Democrats will have to create political mischief for Republicans.

“Some of the things that are contemplated being done in this reconciliation bill, or in this budget resolution legislation, are things that could implicate a number of committees,” Thune said. “Obviously that creates an uphill challenge in terms of trying to ensure that you have 50” votes.

Senators also aired concerns about Trump’s obsessive focus on the GOP elections bill known as the SAVE America Act. The House blueprint contemplates including parts of that bill in the party-line package.

But Senate Budget Chair Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said doing so in the Senate could involve more committees — and open up the range of issues Democrats would be able to force politically troublesome votes on.

“I think we all hate vote-a-rama,” Johnson added. “Some people are more sensitive to the kind of votes they have to take.”

In another complication, some Senate defense hawks want more military spending than the $60 billion House Republicans laid out in their own framework. Johnson said he and other Republicans expect to meet with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth later Wednesday to discuss the Pentagon’s needs.

But other Senate Republicans, such as Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), aren’t convinced it’s a good idea to pursue another party-line bill at all.

“It used to be we would try to figure out how we worked through some challenging problems with the minority,” she said.

Murkowski added that the Trump administration’s strategy of relying on the reconciliation process to avoid bipartisan negotiations only works if a majority of Republican senators go along with the plan.

“It’s not always guaranteed that you get 50” votes, she said.

Vought, meanwhile, leaned on the potential for yet another party-line reconciliation package to be enacted after the midterm elections as another vehicle to deliver key priorities. That could include a debt limit increase, he said, along with yet another tranche of defense cash to meet Trump’s $1.5 trillion goal for annual military spending.

The various legislative vehicles left some GOP senators scratching their hands as they left the lunch.

Asked if he had gotten clarity from Vought & Co., Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said, “‘Not really’ is the short answer.”

Congress

Cruz drops plans to advance AI bills next week

Published

11 hours ago

July 29, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz said Wednesday he is again postponing a highly anticipated markup of artificial intelligence bills planned for next week.

Instead, the Texas Republican said in an interview Wednesday, the panel will only take up bills focused on kids’ online safety.

Cruz said senators could not strike a deal on AI legislation in time for the committee to vote next week.

“We are going to do a markup on kids’ safety next week,” Cruz told Blue Light News. “We have moved the broader AI markup to September. … It’s our intention still to mark those up, but it is taking longer to get bipartisan agreement.”

Cruz said the committee would mark up the Kids Online Safety Act, led by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), along with other measures.

Under the panel’s rules, the chair must publish an agenda a week in advance. The committee did not immediately respond to a question about exactly which bills would be on the docket.