Senate Republicans plan post — election blitz to confirm Trump's judicial nominees

By Nate Raymond Oct 15 (Reuters) — US Senate Republicans are laying the groundwork to confirm as many of President Donald Trump's judicial nominees as possible in the weeks after the November 3 midterm elections, as the chance of Democrats flipping the chamber looms. Republican Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley plans to hold two judicial nomination hearings during the Senate's two-week November session, after the election but before new members are sworn in, a person familiar with the process said on Thursday. That's a break from the traditional pattern of holding only one such hearing every two weeks.

Six nominees are awaiting a hearing and could be eligible to appear at the November 10 hearing. Trump could also potentially announce additional nominees who could go before the panel on November 18. The back-to-back sessions would allow the panel to advance those nominees to the floor and have them voted on by the full Senate in December during the final weeks of the current Congress.

The nomination hearings, which were first reported by Punchbowl News, were set over the objections of the panel's top Democrat, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, who in a statement warned his Republican colleagues that the move could be used against them in the future under a Democratic president. "The chairman’s plan to hold two back-to-back nomination hearings one week apart without minority consent in November departs from longstanding committee practice and establishes a new precedent that will allow Democrats to process nominees more quickly in a future Democratic administration," Durbin said.

Trump's low approval ratings, voter concern over high prices and dissatisfaction with the Iran war have led many analysts and opinion polls to predict significant Democratic gains in the elections, giving them a chance to win control of the Senate, which Republicans now control with a 53-47 majority. If Democrats win control of the Senate, the White House would face a harder road to secure confirmation of judicial nominees named by Trump, who during his first and second terms helped shift the judiciary's ideological balance to the right and secure a 6-3 conservative majority on the US Supreme Court. Trump secured confirmation of 234 judicial nominees in his first term.

Since Trump's return to the White House in January 2025, the Republican-led Senate has confirmed 56 judges, including 10 on the influential appeals courts. Among the six nominees awaiting hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee is Todd Butler, ‌a partner at law firm Phelps Dunbar who was nominated to serve on the New Orleans-based 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals, which is considered the most conservative appeals court in the nation. One nominee, Samuel Adkisson of the White House Counsel's Office, is being held up by a member of Trump's own party, Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.

She has declined without explanation to return a so-called blue slip allowing for his consideration for a federal judgeship in her home state. Read more: Trump faces tight timeline to appoint judges as midterms loom (Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston)