Alina Habba snapped back at Senate lawmakers on Sunday, asserting she "won't be intimidated," days after a federal judge ruled her appointment as acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey was unlawful.
At the center of the fight is the Senate's blue slip tradition - a bipartisan custom, applied to both federal judges and U.S. attorneys, that allows home-state senators to signal or withhold approval for the president's picks.
President Donald Trump has argued the practice prevents "great Republican candidates" from receiving fair consideration by enabling Democrats to obstruct his appointments.
"This tradition that Sen. [Chuck] Grassley is upholding effectively prevents anybody in a blue state from going through to the Senate to then be voted on," Habba told "Sunday Morning Futures" host Maria Bartiromo, slamming the process as an unfair blockade.
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"Senator Booker and Senator Kim had absolutely every right to vote no for me for the U.S. attorney position, but I had the right, as the nominee, to get in front of Senate and to be voted on, to be vetted. I never even got there," Habba said.
New Jersey's Democratic Sens. Cory Booker and Andy Kim both objected to Habba being in the role, meaning her nomination would not likely move forward.
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Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has defended the custom and refused to back down, drawing ire from both Habba and Trump.
"Chuck Grassley, who I got re-elected to the U.S. Senate when he was down, by a lot, in the Great State of Iowa, could solve the 'Blue Slip' problem we are having with respect to the appointment of Highly Qualified Judges and U.S. Attorneys, with a mere flick of the pen," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post in late July. "Democrats like Schumer, Warner, Kaine, Booker, Schiff, and others, SLEAZEBAGS ALL, have an ironclad stoppage of Great Republican Candidates."
Grassley responded to Trump's criticism and calls for the blue slip tradition to be "abandon[ed]" last month, saying he was "disappointed" by Trump's posts regarding the custom.
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"I was offended by what the president said," Grassley said during opening remarks at a Judiciary Committee meeting.
"And I'm disappointed that it would result in personal insults."
Habba has pointed out that the blue slip tradition is not "law" and therefore does not have to be honored.
