Michigan’s Democratic US senators gave President Donald Trump his first blue-state backing for a judicial nominee in his second term, a move likely to inflame progressives.
Sens. Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin returned blue slips, or signed off on, Mike Martin for an opening on the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, the lawmakers said in a statement on Monday.
“After years working as both a federal prosecutor and criminal attorney helping to defend our national security, Michael Martin has the experience and integrity necessary to serve on the federal bench,” Peters’ said.
Martin is a long-time federal prosecutor in the Detroit-based Eastern District, and could appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation hearing as soon as Wednesday.
Progressive advocates have pushed for Democrats to oppose Trump nominees across the board, and have launched ad campaigns against senators who’ve defied their calls.
2020 Election, Jan. 6
Democrats often point to a refusal by Trump judicial nominees to definitively say he lost the 2020 election or that the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, was an insurrection.
Slotkin said she had met with Martin and asked him questions “that speak directly to whether he will uphold our democratic process, regardless of external pressure.”
“From making clear Joe Biden won the 2020 election, to the attack on the Capitol on January 6th, to being clear that President Trump can’t run for a third term, these answers were important factors for me, and fundamentally different from President Trump’s judicial nominees to date,” Slotkin said.
Peters said that Martin showed that he would exercise “independent, forward thinking judgment.”
Demand Justice, a progressive advocacy group, last week announced a six-figure ad buy against Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) over his decision to return a blue slip for Trump’s nominee for a district court opening in Philadelphia, Antonio “Tony” Pozos. Pennsylvania is also represented by Sen. Dave McCormick, a Republican.
Following Fetterman’s announcement, Demand Justice President Josh Orton said the group was prepared to “step up and call out anyone else who refuses to exercise a veto over Trump’s cronies in the future.”
Orton in a social media post on Monday said “it’s a positive that Sen. Slotkin is engaging this problem (unlike Fetterman).”
“But given Trump’s recent meltdown over J6, we must assume this nominee will follow the previous 50 and demonstrate his support for Trump’s big lies,” Orton added.
Michigan Campaign
Though Trump has pushed to end the long-standing “blue slip” tradition, which gives home-state senators the ability to veto White House district court nominations, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has maintained the custom isn’t going anywhere.
The power of home-state senators to weigh in on judicial picks has become a topic of discussion on the campaign trail in Michigan ahead of the hotly contested primary to replace Peters on the ballot in November. He’s retiring at the end of his term.
Democratic Senate candidate US Rep. Haley Stevens said in a social media post on June 4 that Trump nominees’ answers so far on Jan. 6 and the 2020 election should disqualify them from the federal bench.
“As your senator, I’ll NEVER vote to confirm a judicial nominee who can’t meet that common sense threshold,” Stevens said. “Period. Judges must answer to the Constitution, not Donald Trump.”
Abdul El-Sayed, who is widely viewed as a more progressive candidate, said on June 6 in a post on X that he would never vote for any of Trump’s judicial nominees.