Dozens of national progressive groups on Wednesday urged Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) to stop honoring a committee courtesy known as the blue slip rule, which Republicans have been abusing to block President Joe Bidens court picks.

We are concerned that Republican obstruction is slowing the Judiciary Committees efforts, reads a letter to Durbin signed by 33 organizations, including Demand Justice, Lambda Legal and the League of Conservation Voters. We are concerned that the current blue slip practice, which has always been based on the Chairs prerogative, is contributing to this obstruction by giving home state senators more power than they have had through much of modern history, and if unchanged, it will prevent President Biden from filling dozens of judicial vacancies.

They added, The blue slip policy should be reformed or discontinued to ensure a fair process and stop Republicans from blocking highly-qualified Biden judicial nominees.

The groups on the letter include pro-democracy, environmental and civil rights organizations, most of whom are taking a position on blue slips for the first time. End Citizens United and the League of Conservation Voters are among those new to the cause.

The use of blue slips by Senate Republicans to block highly-qualified judges is essentially another filibuster. Its purely political and a power grab, Tiffany Muller, executive director of End Citizens United, told HuffPost in a statement. We fully support reforms to the blue slip custom or a discontinuation of it to ensure a fair and democratic process. Senate Democrats must not acquiesce to GOP obstructionism.

Doug Lindner, senior director of Judiciary & Democracy at the League of Conservation Voters, said Biden and Senate Democrats have built an incredible record of picking and confirming diverse judges. But there are still roughly 100 federal court vacancies that need to be filled in the face of GOP obstruction.

In their current iteration, blue slips are too often used in bad faith to block people of color and women from becoming judges or hold lifetime judgeships open for a different president to fill, said Lindner. The White House and Senate must fill every Circuit and District Court vacancy by the end of 2024, and cannot allow obstructionists to thwart this progress.

Heres a copy of the groups letter:

The committees blue slip rule is not an official Senate rule. Instead, its a courtesy unique to the Judiciary Committee, where senators simply turn in a blue slip of paper signaling their support for giving a hearing to a judicial nominee from that senators state. If both of a nominees home-state senators turn in their blue slips, the nominee gets a hearing. If only one turns in a blue slip, or neither turns them in, the nominee doesnt get a hearing.

Republicans havent been signing blue slips for many of Bidens court picks, effectively tanking their nominations in the committee as Durbin continues to uphold the tradition. He doesnt want to get rid of the courtesy at least, not yet so his response to the GOPs obstruction has been to ask them to please turn in their blue slips repeatedly.

During a hearing last week, Durbin pointed out that Democratic senators had turned in 110 blue slips during the Trump administration. By contrast, Republicans have signed 17 blue slips so far in the Biden administration.

I plead with my colleagues to make a good faith effort to sit down and see if they can reach an agreement with the White House on nominees, he said to GOP senators.