Mitch McConnell to scrap Senate's 'blue slip' tool for obstructing judicial nominees

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Republicans will scrap the chamber's "blue slip" tradition, eliminating a tool of the minority to block the executive's judicial nominees.

The Senate's blue slip procedure provides that a state's senators are consulted by the White House before a president nominates a judge from that state, regardless of party affiliation, according to a Congressional Research Service report detailing the blue slip policy.

The home-state senators have then historically the opportunity to block a nominee from getting a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing and vote. McConnell told The Weekly Standard's Fred Barnes in an article published Wednesday that such opportunities will no longer exist.

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