Taking a play from the Democrats’ playbook against President Bush’s judicial nominees, Senate Republicans declined in six instances last week to provide the unanimous consent needed to waive the Senate rule (XXXI.6) requiring that pending nominations be sent back to the White House when the Senate goes into recess for more than 30 days. Those six instances concerned the judicial nominations of Goodwin Liu (Ninth Circuit), Robert N. Chatigny (Second Circuit), Louis B. Butler Jr. (W.D. Wisc.), Edward M. Chen (N.D. Cal.), and John J. McConnell Jr. (D.R.I.) and the DOJ nomination of Mary Smith. So the Senate has returned those six nominations to the White House.

As I understand it, if President Obama chooses to renominate these individuals, the Senate will refer the new nominations to the Senate Judiciary Committee so that the committee can provide its recommendation to the full Senate.