A Dubious Century-Old U.S. Senate Tradition May End

NBC News reports:

There are few pieces of paper more powerful than a Senate "blue slip," which gives individual senators near-veto power over nominees to federal courts.

But they may now be losing their power, clearing the way for President Donald Trump to remake the federal judiciary in his image and potentially changing the way the Senate and the courts operate for years.

The power of blue slips can be traced back to 1917, when Georgia Democratic Sen. Thomas Hardwick was the first known senator to use the form to object to a nomination, according to the Congressional Research Service. On a light blue sheet of paper soliciting his opinion on President Woodrow Wilson's pick for a Georgia judgeship, Hardwick called U.V. Whipple "personally offensive and objectionable to me." The Senate rejected the nomination, and blue slips evolved from there.

Just a reminder.