Blackburn Lifts Her Block on Trump Judge Pick Samuel Adkisson

Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee has reversed course and backed President Donald Trump's pick for a federal judgeship in her home state, ending a block that had stalled the nomination since last month.

Blackburn has returned a favorable blue slip for Samuel Adkisson, a lawyer in the White House Counsel's Office who is nominated to the US District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, her spokesperson said on Wednesday. A White House official confirmed that the blue slip had been returned.

"Senator Blackburn has returned a favorable blue slip for Mr. Adkisson," the spokesperson said. "She looks forward to supporting his nomination and ensuring that he is confirmed before the end of the year."

A block with no explanation

Blackburn withheld her blue slip last month, and Adkisson did not appear at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on September 30 where other nominees were questioned. She did not explain the decision at the time, and her spokesperson did not say on Wednesday why she had changed course.

The block stood out because Blackburn sits on the Judiciary Committee itself and has reliably backed Trump's judicial nominees. She is also running for governor of Tennessee. Tennessee's other senator, Bill Hagerty, supported Adkisson from the start and pointed to his clerkship for Chief Justice John Roberts.

What the blue slip decides

Under the Senate's blue slip custom, the Judiciary Committee asks both home state senators for their position on a district court nominee before the nomination moves forward. The forms take their name from the color of the paper. Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley requires favorable blue slips from both senators, which gives each one real leverage over who fills a judgeship in their state.

With Blackburn's slip returned, Adkisson can now appear before the Republican led committee. The panel plans to hold two hearings on pending judicial nominees, on November 10 and November 18.

The nominee

Adkisson serves as an associate counsel in the White House Counsel's Office and as a special assistant to the president. He graduated from Yale Law School in 2018 and worked for Grassley during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh that year. He later clerked for Judge Gregory Katsas of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, for Judge Amul Thapar of the Sixth Circuit, and for Chief Justice Roberts. Before joining the White House in 2025, he practiced at Gibson Dunn and Crutcher and at Cooper and Kirk.

Announcing the nomination in August, Trump credited Adkisson for his work on numerous important cases. He named Trump v. Slaughter in particular, the case in which the Supreme Court ruled in June that the president has broad authority to fire the heads of regulatory agencies.

A confirmation race against the calendar

Republicans are using the November hearings to move as many judicial nominees as they can toward confirmation by the full Senate before the current Congress ends. Democrats hope to reclaim control of the Senate in the November 3 midterm elections, which would change who controls the confirmation process next year. Blackburn's stated aim, confirmation before the end of the year, now depends on the committee acting at those November hearings and on the full Senate finding floor time in its final weeks.