BLUE SLIP BLUE PENCILLED

Orrin Hatch yesterday ignored the idiotic ‘blue slip’ rule in pushing through the nomination of an Appeals Court judge despite Barbara Boxer’s objections. It’s one thing to extend Senatorial Courtesy to members of a president’s party on District Court nominees. But to allow an opposition party senator to have an outright veto for an entire judicial circuit is, well, idiotic. (That’s why it’s called “the idotic blue slip rule,” after all.)

I feel obliged to note that the phrase “Scalia in a skirt” evokes images that I’d rather not have evoked, thank you very much.

FILED UNDER: Law and the Courts, US Politics, ,
James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.