The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee says that he is likely to give more weight to objections from Democrats on district judge nominees than more powerful circuit court picks.

“I think the blue slip is more respected for district court judges historically than it has been for circuit,” Sen. Charles E. Grassley said Thursday in an interview with Roll Call and the Associated Press for C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers” program.

The Judiciary Committee’s process has generally required senators to return a blue slip of paper consenting to hearings and markups of nominees for federal judgeships from their home states, but the Republican from Iowa argues that’s not a hard-and-fast rule.

“It’s much more a White House decision on circuit judges than the district court judges,” Grassley said. “I mean this is going to be an individual case-by-case decision, but it leads me to say that there’s going to have to be a less strict use or obligation to the blue slip policy for circuit, because that’s the way it’s been.”

Grassley’s comments, which came during an interview focused on the Judiciary Committee’s agenda for the Sunday edition of C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers” program are of immediate interest because of Trump’s announced slate of federal judicial nominees.