By Nate Raymond

June 5 (Reuters) - U.S. Senator John Fetterman has cleared the way for one of President Donald Trump's picks to be a federal judge in Pennsylvania to go forward, becoming the first Democrat to turn in a so-called "blue slip" allowing one of the Republicans' judicial nominees to advance during his second term.

A spokesperson for Fetterman on Friday confirmed that the first-term senator had taken the step allowing Senate consideration of Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath partner Antonio Pozos, Trump's nominee to serve as judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Senators must return blue slips, named for the color of the forms, to the Senate Judiciary Committee for district court judge nominees from their home state to be considered, giving the senators leverage over who the White House picks.

Fetterman's decision clears the way for Pozos to appear before the committee during a hearing on Wednesday, to the dismay of progressive legal advocates, including at the group Demand Justice, which announced a planned six-figure ad buy in Pennsylvania attacking him for his decision.

Josh Orton, the group's president, said Fetterman's decision appeared in keeping with the senator's willingness to break with Democrats in opposing Trump initiatives.

"My hope is that returning a blue slip on a Trump judge stays as just another Fetterman turn to enabling Trump, and not something broadly adopted by the Democratic caucus," he said.

Demand Justice has similarly run ads against some of the 19 Democrats who have voted at least once in favor of Trump's second-term judicial nominees. The group argues the nominees should be rejected over their routine refusal to state that Trump lost the 2020 election to now-former Democratic President Joe Biden.

Punchbowl News first reported Fetterman's decision. While Fetterman returned a blue slip allowing Pozos' nomination to advance, his spokesperson said the senator "will decide on his vote when the time comes."

Pozos, a former trial lawyer with the U.S. Department of Justice, was one of two judicial nominees Trump announced on May 11 that hail from states with at least one Democratic senator, after previously focusing on filling judicial vacancies in Republican-dominated states.

Trump, the same day, also announced he was nominating Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Martin to be a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.

Michigan's two Democratic senators, Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin, have yet to say if they are going to return blue slips on his nomination. Their spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment.

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