GOP Accelerates Judge Confirmations As Pressure Builds To Kill Senate Blue Slip
Senate Republicans confirmed six of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees this week, pressing ahead with an aggressive strategy to reshape the federal judiciary during Trump’s second term.
The confirmations underscore a broader GOP push to move Trump’s judges through the Senate as quickly as possible—while reigniting a long-simmering debate over the Senate’s “blue slip” tradition, a century-old practice that allows home-state senators to effectively block certain judicial nominees.
Republicans backing reform argue the blue slip has increasingly been weaponized by Democrats to stall or kill conservative nominees, particularly for district court judges and U.S. attorneys. Some Trump allies have urged Senate Republicans to eliminate the practice entirely.
“Nuking the blue slip would be a huge mistake,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., told Fox News Digital.
Tillis, who has defended the tradition, warned that abolishing blue slips could backfire when Democrats regain control of the Senate. Other Republicans have echoed that concern, arguing that while the practice can be frustrating, it still serves as a safeguard for minority-party input.
Since President Trump returned to office, the Senate has confirmed 33 judges, a pace that outstrips confirmations during the early months of his first term. By comparison, the Senate confirmed 19 Article III nominees during Trump’s first year in office in 2017, including Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch.
Still, Democrats under former President Joe Biden moved even faster. During Biden’s first year, the Senate confirmed 42 judicial nominees, aided by unified Democratic control of Washington at the time.
While it remains uncertain whether Republicans can surpass Trump’s first-term total of 234 judicial confirmations, GOP leadership has so far declined to abolish the blue slip outright.
President Trump, however, has made his frustration with the practice clear.
Speaking in the Oval Office late last year, Trump argued that Republicans should “get rid of blue slips,” saying the tradition has prevented him from appointing judges and U.S. attorneys aligned with his agenda.
That frustration reportedly intensified after blue slips stalled the nominations of Alina Habba and Lindsey Halligan. Trump has also publicly clashed with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, a staunch defender of the practice.
Grassley previously modified the rules in 2017 to eliminate blue slip requirements for circuit court nominees—a move that helped Republicans confirm dozens of appellate judges during Trump’s first term, despite fierce Democratic opposition.
“It doesn’t need to be a present question,” Grassley told Fox News Digital when asked whether the Senate’s pace suggested the blue slip would survive.
“Because it’s a question of 110 years, and everybody in the Senate wants to maintain the blue slip,” he added.
Ganjei Confirmed to Federal Bench
Among the latest confirmations was Nicholas Ganjei, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, who was approved for a lifetime federal judgeship in Houston.
The Senate confirmed Ganjei in a 51–45 vote, largely along party lines, with four senators not voting.
Ganjei, who will step down from the U.S. Attorney’s Office after just over a year, was appointed to the role on Jan. 30, 2025. He initially served in an interim capacity and was later appointed permanently by district judges—a group he will now join on the federal bench.
Nominated for the judgeship in October, Ganjei advanced out of the Senate Judiciary Committee in December.
President Trump praised Ganjei as a “fearless proponent of immigration enforcement, strong borders, and law and order.”
Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, both Republicans from Texas, endorsed the nomination. Ganjei previously served as Cruz’s chief counsel from 2022 to 2025 and has worked as a federal prosecutor, including a brief stint as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas in 2021.