Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellMomentum growing among Republicans for Supreme Court vote before Election Day Trump expects to nominate woman to replace Ginsburg next week Video of Lindsey Graham arguing against nominating a Supreme Court justice in an election year goes viral MORE (R-Ky.) is weighing in on a looming fight over judicial nominees, saying an obscure Senate rule shouldn't be used to block some judicial nominations.

“My personal view is that the blue slip, with regard to circuit court appointments, ought to simply be a notification of how you’re going to vote, not the opportunity to blackball,” McConnell told The New York Times.

The Senate's "blue slip" practice — which isn't a rule but a tradition enforced by the Judiciary Committee chairman — allows home-state senators to sign off on a judicial nominee on actual blue slips of paper before the committee holds a nomination hearing.

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By not returning the paper, the senators can effectively block a nominee.

McConnell added that he supports continuing the blue slip rule for district court nominees, whose decisions can be overturned by circuit court judges.

Republicans have talked for months about narrowing the blue slip rule to exclude circuit court judges, who have jurisdiction over several states.

But the fight is increasingly in the spotlight as Democratic senators are warning they will not return blue slips on a growing number of Trump's court nominees.

And Minnesota Sen. Al Franken (D) will oppose David Stras, President Trump’s nominee to serve on the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Senate Democrats eliminated the 60-vote filibuster for lower-court judicial nominees in 2013, leaving the blue-slip tradition the only way for senators to veto controversial nominees.

Republicans used blue-slip objections to block several of President Obama’s nominees. But they're now under intense pressure from conservatives to get rid of the precedent so they can place Trump's picks on the courts.

Republicans did away with the 60-vote procedural threshold for Supreme Court nominees earlier this year.

Democrats, however, are warning Republicans against eliminating the precedent, noting they could be back in the minority and powerless to block judicial nominations they are opposed to.