Republicans in the US Senate filibustered the nomination of Caitlin Halligan to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, despite her receiving majority support from the Senate on a cloture vote. The nomination failed to achieve cloture by a count of 54-45.

The nomination of Goodwin Liu to the 9th Circuit gets a vote in the Senate today, and the prospects are pretty bleak. President Obama nominated Alaska Supreme Court justice Morgen Christen to the 9th Circuit (which has four vacancies) yesterday, drawing praise from Lisa Murkowski. Perhaps this was part of a deal to get Murkowski’s vote for Liu. Other than that, I haven’t seen much of a strategy to get this accomplished, other than trying to force Republicans to be as good as their past statements about filibustering judicial nominations.

Tom Udall has released the Senate rules reform package that he will introduce today for a vote, which he believes he can get passed with a simple majority. It includes most of the features that had been bandied about throughout the last couple weeks.

It’s the silent filibuster, the filibuster where the Majority Leader knows that it’ll take a week to get the head of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission through the Senate, that is just a pure waste of time. And the rules of ending post-cloture time for nominations (because what’s to discuss or amend after that?), or ending the filibuster of the motion to proceed, would make those silent filibusters less painful.

The Senate continued a mad rush in their fairly productive lame duck session today, passing a food safety bill and filing cloture to end debate on ratification of the new START treaty.

This was the trade made in the Senate last night; the Dems will get legislative repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, a couple judges, and probably the new START Treaty, and the Republicans will get the chance to massively cut spending early in the 112th Congress.

It’s the first Monday in October, which means that the Supreme Court reconvenes in Washington. Their docket this term includes a number of First Amendment cases. And while the new members of the Court chosen by President Obama have created a true partisan divide, with the court’s members appointed by Democratic Presidents nominally on the center-left, and those appointed by Republicans on the right, we won’t get to see that in action entirely this year. Because Elena Kagan, the newest Justice, has recused herself from 25 out of the 51 cases so far this term.

Now, two years after taking office, after holding a 59-seat majority for much of that time, the President has finally decided to wade into this thicket with a letter to the Senate, asking for the pretty-please confirmation of his judicial nominees.

Meanwhile, the Senate needs to take a break. Passing a bill for state fiscal aid and confirming a Supreme Court justice in one day? That’s breakneck speed! Somebody get them a six-week recess, stat! Oh wait. . . .

In his remarks announcing his support, Graham said that “There’s plenty of reasons for a conservative to vote no, but there are plenty of reasons for a conservative to vote yes,” and while he didn’t agree with Kagan’s judicial philosophy, he felt duty-bound to support the nomination because of Presidential prerogative.