In the News

What happened: Top members of the Congressional Black Caucus are taking the extraordinary step of asking President Joe Biden to withdraw two federal judicial nominees the day they were nominated.

Their problem isn't anything to do with the nominees, the nine lawmakers said, but rather because they weren't meaningfully consulted about the nominations beforehand.

In a letter sent Wednesday to the White House, nine top Black Caucus Democrats said they would not be able to support the nominations of Jerry Edwards Jr. and Brandon Long to the federal bench.

“The process used to make these selections makes it impossible to support the nominations at this time,” the members wrote. “Our objection is not to them as individuals, rather our position is predicated on the process used to select the nominees because it did not provide the opportunity for our meaningful participation.”

The Black lawmakers were concerned that Rep. Troy Carter (D-La.), a member of Black Caucus leadership and the sole Democratic lawmaker from Louisiana, has not been properly consulted on multiple judicial nominations. Despite assurances he’d be in the loop, today’s selections were presented to him as a “fait accompli,” they said.

The backstory: Their letter is the latest example of simmering tensions between the Black Caucus and other Democrats over the judicial nomination process. They also have a problem with the Senate practice of “blue slips,” the common name for an arcane tradition that gives a single home-state senator veto power over Biden’s judicial picks. 

Black Caucus members, some of whom hail from blue districts in red states, have groused about the need to secure support from conservative senators to get judges through and have urged their Senate colleagues to end the practice. The Black lawmakers have worried the ability to secure the support of home-state GOP senators is trumping considerations of the nominees’ backgrounds or ideologies.

Both the newly named judicial picks are expected to secure the support of Louisiana’s two Republican senators, POLITICO reported Wednesday.

“Negotiating with senators to fill judicial vacancies without meaningfully including elected members of the House of Representatives must stop,” the Black Caucus members wrote.

Who signed: The letter was signed by Democratic Reps. Jim Clyburn (S.C.), Steven Horsford (Nev.), Bennie Thompson (Miss.), Sheila Jackson Lee (Texas), Al Green (Texas), Emanuel Cleaver (Mo.), Terri Sewell (Ala.), Robin Kelly (Ill.) and Carter (La.)

What’s next: They all requested a meeting with White House chief of staff Jeff Zients to voice their concerns.