NOMINATIONS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Two Senate Democrats said Thursday [9-7-17] they will block yet another nominee from President Donald Trump to the nation’s powerful appellate courts — inflaming a growing battle between Democratic senators and the White House over judicial candidates.
The White House nominated Ryan Bounds to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday to a seat that became vacant in December. Bounds is currently assistant U.S attorney in Oregon and also served in the George W. Bush administration; he has clerked for the federal judge he would replace, Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain.
But in a letter sent to the White House the same day, Bounds’ two home-state senators — Democrats Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley of Oregon — announced they would not return a ‘blue slip’ for Bounds’ nomination to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The panel generally does not proceed with a confirmation hearing for judicial nominees without the seal of approval from the home-state senators, which is done by sending a blue slip back to the committee.
Wyden and Merkley stressed in the letter, addressed to White House counsel Don McGahn, that they had already told the administration they would not greenlight any candidate that had not been approved by a bipartisan judicial selection committee in the state.”
-Seung Min Kim, “Democrats prepare to block another Trump judicial nominee,” Politico, Sept. 7, 2017 06:38pm