Refusing to be brushed off by Democratic opposition in the Senate, President Bush plans to nominate for a second time 20 people who did not receive up or down votes on their nominations for federal judgeships.

The Democrats’ ability to stall certain White House picks for the federal bench was one of the most contentious issues of Bush’s first term. During the past two years, despite the GOP majority in the Senate, Democrats used filibusters to prevent final votes from occurring on 10 of 34 of Bush’s nominees to federal appeals courts.