President Joe Biden received support for a judicial nominee for a seat on the conservative 5th Circuit Court of Appeals from an unusual faction: both Republican Senators for Texas have sent their endorsements for Irma Carrillo Ramirez, the Texas Tribune reports.
During the previous administration, Democratic Senators frequently withheld their endorsements for judicial nominees from their states–a traditional system known as "blue slips"–because Trump's nominees were questionable at best: ten of his 267 nominees were rated "not qualified," nearly half of the 22 nominees so rated by the American Bar Association since 1989. Of the remaining 67 were ranked with the middling "qualified." Only 70% were ranked "very qualified."