That’s the title of my new Confirmation Tales post, which explores how the robust blue-slip privilege in effect for appellate nominees twenty years ago enabled Republican senator Gordon Smith to secure a Ninth Circuit nomination for his brother Milan. An excerpt:
By the usual standards, Milan Smith Jr. was an unlikely candidate for a Ninth Circuit seat in California in 2006.
For starters, Smith would turn 64 years old in April 2006, so he might be expected to have a short judicial tenure.
More importantly, there was nothing in Smith’s record to indicate that he subscribed to the conservative judicial principles that George W. Bush’s judge-pickers were looking for in his nominees….
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