Alina Habba’s interim appointment as the US Attorney for New Jersey is dying on the vine. Why? The blue slip tradition is keeping her nomination from reaching the Senate floor for a full vote. Sens. Cory Booker and Andy Kim, both Democrats, are using the slip to block her. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) isn’t keen on bucking this institutional mechanism, and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who recently called it quits around the reconciliation vote, vowed also to support the blue slip hold on Habba (via Politico):
Alina Habba is heaping more pressure on Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) to revoke the chamber’s blue slip tradition, which New Jersey’s two Democratic senators wielded to stop her from getting a floor vote for the post of U.S. attorney in the state.
Trump had nominated Habba, whom he tapped on an interim basis in March, for the full-time appointment. But Sens. Cory Booker and Andy Kim used blue slips — which empower home-state senators to block U.S. attorney and District Court judge nominees — to keep her from advancing in the chamber.
And Grassley, despite pressure from the White House, isn’t planning on curtailing that power anytime soon.
Meanwhile, Tillis, also a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has said he’d serve as a check against anyone opposed by a home-state senator even if Grassley rescinded the procedure.
“This tradition that Senator Grassley is upholding effectively prevents anybody in a blue state from going through into Senate to then be voted on,” Habba said on “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo.” “Senator Booker and Senator Kim had absolutely every right to vote no for me for the U.S. Attorney position. But I had the right as the nominee to get if front of Senate and to be voted on, to be vetted. I never even got there.”
On Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business, Habba directed her fire inside the ship on Tillis and Grassley, adding essentially that they’re not fighting everything this administration and the American people voted for in 2024:
🚨 BREAKING: Acting US Attorney Alina Habba just SLAMMED Thom Tillis and Chuck Grassley for blocking her confirmation
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) August 24, 2025
"I would say to Sen. Tillis and Sen. Grassley: YOU are becoming part of the issue. YOU are becoming part of the antithesis of what we fought for FOUR YEARS!"… pic.twitter.com/T5diuwqElG
Mr. Tillis has turned into the upper chamber’s Thomas Massie, causing nothing but trouble as he stomps his feet toward the end of his term. He called the reconciliation bill that kicked illegals off Medicaid, fully funded the GOP’s immigration enforcement agenda, and codified the Trump tax cuts and no tax on tips as a piece of legislation that could become the president’s “Obamacare.” Of course, Tillis spilled his guts to CNN at the time.
Tillis to CNN: I hope that he starts listening to more of us and fewer of those people who pretend like they're the president when he's out of the room…
— The Intellectualist (@highbrow_nobrow) July 9, 2025
CNN: Who are you talking about?
Tillis: There will be plenty of time for me to cover that… @Acyn pic.twitter.com/KlTY2kZHkR
Habba’s actions post-July 1 could be declared void if the logjam doesn’t break.