Last week, President Obama renominated dozens of his judicial nominees who hadn't been acted on by the last Senate. Twenty-three of these candidates are officially categorized as "emergency" nominees, because the positions they've been nominated for have been vacant for more than 18 months or there are excessive numbers of court filings for the panels or judgeships.
Among those nominated again include 18 who had previously cleared the committee but were not confirmed by the Senate at large. That list includes contested figures like University of California law professor Goodwin Liu, Obama's nominee for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, as well as California magistrate judge Edward Chen, nominated for the District Court for the Northern District of California. Twenty-four other renominated candidates never got a committee vote.
Judge Robert Chatigny, who Obama nominated for a seat on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals but had been held up over his positions on judicial restraint and sexual offenders, was not sent back to the Senate for consideration.
During his first two years in office, Obama had 62 judicial nominees confirmed by the Senate, compared to 100 for George W. Bush during the first congressional session of his presidency.
Senate Judiciary chair Patrick Leahy will decide, along with the ranking Republican on the committee--probably Chuck Grassley--whether these nominees will have to go through committee hearings again. Most of them had been passed by the committee and were awaiting votes on the full floor. And we all know the story of votes on the Senate floor, where paragons of Republican virtue like minority leader Mitch McConnell filibuster nominees, all the while declaring opposition to filibustering these nominees.
The situation has gotten so bad that Chief Justice John Roberts sharply criticized the Senate in his State of the Judiciary report [pdf] released last week, though he kept his criticism bipartisan, of course. "Each political party has found it easy to turn on a dime from decrying to defending the blocking of judicial nominations, depending on their changing political fortunes," he wrote.
Politicization of nominations isn't anything new, as this chart demonstrates.

But neither has it been as dire as it is today, when Republicans seem intent on creating gridlock where ever they can, including in the nation's court. One of the Senate's newest obstructers, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), learned fast. He's already announced his opposition to two of the renominated judges.