Washington—Senators Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris (both D-Calif.) today released the following statement on Ninth Circuit vacancies and efforts to undermine their role in the nominations process:

“Over the past several weeks, we’ve seen a concerted effort from our Republican colleagues in the Senate to undermine the bipartisan tradition of cooperation with home-state senators in the judicial nominations process, most recently going so far as to say that blue slips for California nominees to the Ninth Circuit may not be honored.

“It is important to note that we recommended three candidates for the Ninth Circuit to the White House last Friday, and our judicial nominating commissions interviewed all candidates recommended by the White House.

“All three nominees are well-regarded by their local bench and bar. All three enjoy broad Republican support. And all three should enjoy the support of the White House.

“We also expect that Chairman Grassley will afford us the same respect he afforded Senators Mitch McConnell, Jeff Sessions, Pat Toomey, Richard Shelby, Dan Coats, Lindsay Graham, Marco Rubio, David Perdue, Richard Burr, Thom Tillis and Dean Heller in 2015-2016 when he did not hold hearings for nominees they did not return blue slips on.”

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