On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate confirmed Donald Trump’s pick for the Federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, Seattle attorney Eric Miller. In a break with precedent, Mitch McConnell ignored the ‘blue slip’ rule, which stipulates that one or more of a judicial nominee’s home state senators must approve of the choice for a full Senate vote to be taken on the nominee. In the case of Eric Miller, neither Senator Murray nor Senator Cantwell returned their blue slip. Of course, it seems like precedent no longer means anything in Mitch McConnell’s Senate, and Miller was confirmed on basically a party line vote.
Senator Cantwell had issued a press release before the vote, saying:
“I oppose Eric Miller’s confirmation. He has spent his career fighting against Tribal rights and sovereignty and is opposed by organizations representing all 573 Tribal Nations in the United States. Confirming a judge without support from either home-state senator would set a damaging precedent.”
We should thank our Senators for voting against judges like Eric Miller, and also tell them what we think about Senator McConnell’s norms-breaking.
Today’s Action: Call our Senators to thank them and caution them against allowing Republicans to get away with the destruction of norms
Call both:
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Senator Patty Murray: DC – 202-224-2621 Seattle – 206-553-5545
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Senator Maria Cantwell: DC – 202-224-3441 Seattle – 206-220-6400
Sample script:
“Hi, my name is {NAME}, and I’m calling from {CITY, ZIP}. I want to thank the Senator for voting against the confirmation of Eric Miller to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Also, I want to remind her that we cannot afford to let Republican norms-breaking be unpunished. Democrats need to restore judicial balance after they retake the Senate. Letting the Republicans’ bad behavior go unpunished will mean that this will only happen again. Please end blue slips and the rest of our broken norms until we fix what Republicans have broken.”
