Blue Slips

Since at least 1917, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee has sent a blue-colored form to the two senators from a nominee's home state asking for their opinion of the nominee. A senator who withholds or returns a negative blue slip signals opposition. The practice grew out of senatorial courtesy, the older tradition that senators of the President's party would be consulted about federal appointments in their states, and it has no basis in the Constitution, statute, or Senate rules. It is a policy of the committee chair.

How much weight a blue slip carries has depended on the chair. Some chairs treated a missing blue slip as a veto that kept a nominee from getting a hearing, while others treated it as one factor among many. Blue slips apply to nominees for district courts, courts of appeals, U.S. attorneys, and U.S. marshals. Because they give home-state senators leverage, presidents usually consult senators, including those of the other party, before nominating district judges and U.S. attorneys, and many senators use commissions to recommend candidates.

Since 2017 the committee has no longer allowed a single senator's blue slip to block a circuit court nominee, but it has continued to honor blue slips for district judges and U.S. attorneys. In 2025 the President publicly urged the committee chair to abandon the practice after senators of the other party withheld blue slips for some U.S. attorney nominees, and the chair kept it. Supporters say blue slips ensure that nominees have local support and encourage consensus picks, while critics say they let a single senator block qualified nominees and that the President, not individual senators, holds the appointment power.