Virginia’s Democratic senators are set to derail President Donald Trump’s nomination of Lindsey Halligan for U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
The senators will leverage the Blue Slip tradition, which has come under fire from Trump and others who argue that Democrats are using it to hamper the administration’s agenda.
From Semafor:
Virginia’s two Democratic senators are likely to block his nomination of Lindsey Halligan as US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, according to people familiar with the matter.
That means using internal veto power by refusing to return a blue slip that indicates support for a home-state judicial nominee.
Currently, “she does not have a blue slip for either one,” said the Senate Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat, Dick Durbin.
Neither Virginia Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine or Mark Warner explicitly confirmed they’ll block Halligan as they seek a nominee they could support; Warner said he’d meet with her but that it would be “very hard” to support her.
And Senate Republicans aren’t eliminating blue slips, despite Trump’s request, because they want input when a Democrat is president, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said.
The blue slip tradition is an informal Senate Judiciary Committee practice where senators from the same state as a potential nominee can prevent the candidate from going through the confirmation process. The tradition is not enshrined in the rules, but has been a practice for more than a century.
On Halligan, @SenTimKaine signals he & Sen. Warner will withhold blue slips for her nom, effectively killing it.
— Benjamin S. Weiss (@BenjaminSWeiss) December 11, 2025
“Lindsey Halligan has been kind of designated by the White House in this role for weeks and weeks now, she hasn’t reached out to Warner & me. I mean, it's a fact.” https://t.co/0FO28rtbGH
President Trump railed against the tradition in a recent post on Truth Social where he said they are “making it impossible to get great Republican Judges and U.S. Attorneys approved to serve in any state where there is even a single Democrat Senator.”
We need to light a fire under his ass.
— Fiddlers Green 🇺🇸 (@alephabetsoup) December 9, 2025
The blue slip exists so as to not hold corrupt politicians accountable when they commit crimes in their states.
This is a gentlemen’s agreement and unconstitutional. https://t.co/H4X7sP15hW
He called on Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) to do away with the tradition. However, the lawmaker indicated in an interview that it would remain in place.
Democratic senators have weaponized the tradition against several of the president’s nominees. Former Interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba resigned earlier this week because both of New Jersey’s senators blocked her confirmation using the blue slip.
Several prosecution efforts Habba spearheaded have been challenged in court because the plaintiffs argued that she was not lawfully in her position. Those serving as an interim U.S. attorney have a three-month period before it expires. After the term expires, the district court are resonpsible for appointing a replacement. Instead, Attorney General Pam Bondi tried to reappoint Habba since the senators would not allow her to be confirmed.
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