The White House will tomorrow renominate more than a dozen candidates for judicial positions on federal courts, a person familiar with the administration’s plans tells NPR.

The Senate failed to vote on the nominees before the last Congressional term expired last month.

In all, the Senate never took an up or down vote on 19 of the Obama administration’s judicial nominees, leaving them stranded at the end of the congressional session.

Among those the president will renominate are the most controversial nominees, who include University of California law professor Goodwin Liu and California magistrate judge Edward Chen.

Liu has come under particular criticism from some Republicans, in part because of sharp comments he made about the nomination of now-Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.

Chief Justice John Roberts recently criticized the Senate for its slow pace on judge votes. And court administrators say almost four dozen persistent vacancies on busy courts are creating judicial emergencies. Copyright 2011 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.