President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday that he plans to have the Department of Justice file lawsuits against the Democratic redistricting effort in California and the use of “blue slips” in the U.S. Senate.
The Hill reported that in his comments, Trump first addressed the situation in California. “I think I’m going to be filing a lawsuit pretty soon, and I think we’re going to be very successful in it. We’re going to be filing it through the Department of Justice — that’s going to happen.”
California Republicans have already filed a lawsuit against Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to change the state’s congressional boundaries, a move Newsom said was in response to Texas Republicans’ efforts to redistrict there. Trump did not indicate whether the DOJ would join that suit or file separately.
Trump also raised the potential of a lawsuit to end the use of Senate blue slips to advance nominees. Trump has been critical of Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, for not skirting the traditional process of senators giving a thumbs-up or down for nominees.
“We’re also going to be filing a lawsuit on blue slipping,” Trump told reporters. “You know, blue slips make it impossible for me as president to appoint a judge or a U.S. attorney because they have a gentleman’s agreement — nothing memorialized — it’s a gentleman’s agreement that’s about 100 years old, where if you have a president, like a Republican, and if you have a Democrat senator, that senator can stop you from appointing a judge or a U.S. attorney in particular, those two,” Trump said.
He complained that too many of his nominees for federal positions have been rejected from the start by Democrat senators who want to interfere with his administration. He focused on the practice being a tradition and not an official Senate rule, nor is it included in U.S. law.
“It’s not based on a law, and I think it’s unconstitutional, and I’ll probably be filing a suit on that soon,” said Trump.
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