WASHINGTON (CNN) - In a move sure to please the political left, President Obama on Monday re-nominated a New York lawyer to a prestigious seat on a federal appeals court, ensuring an election-year fight with Republicans over judges.

Caitlin Halligan was one of two nominees named by the President to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, seen by many as a professional stepping stone to the Supreme Court. Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Antonin Scalia, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Clarence Thomas also served on that court prior to their appointment to their current jobs. Halligan is currently general counsel for the District Attorney's Office in Manhattan, New York

"This important court is often called the nations second-highest court, and it stands more than a quarter vacant," said Mr. Obama. "I remain deeply disappointed that a minority of the United States Senate blocked Ms. Halligan's nomination last year and urge her reconsideration, especially given her broad bipartisan support from the legal and law enforcement communities."

In a rare move, Senate Republicans in December voted to block the 45-year-old Ohio native, complaining she was too liberal and would be an activist on the bench.

The largely party-line vote was 54 to 45, falling shy of the required 60-vote threshold that would have ended the cloture stalemate and allow a final vote on the nomination itself.

The nomination was closely watched because the DC Circuit considers so many federal cases that often end up at the U.S. Supreme Court.

The was no immediate reaction to the re-nomination from Senate Republicans, and no indication when confirmation hearings would be held. The election year would complicate such a Judiciary Cmte. review, given its compressed schedule, and past partisan disagreement over Halligan, likely to spill over into reconsideration of her qualifications for the bench. FULL POST