Senate Republicans threatened Thursday to hold up floor action on a patent overhaul bill until Democrats allow votes on a number of President Bush’s controversial judicial nominees.

The threat marked the next phase in the growing election-year battle over the judiciary, an issue that Republicans hope will energize conservatives eager to see more of Bush’s nominees confirmed to the bench.

“There is a growing movement in the Republican caucus to hold up legislation if we cannot [get] confirmation of these judges,” Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said on the floor. “It is a time-honored practice in this body to put holds on legislation or holds on nominations or otherwise to delay legislation from being considered.”

The Republicans say they will hold up the bill until the Senate confirms the nominations of Robert Conrad and Steve Matthews for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, Peter Keisler for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and Gene Pratter for the 3rd Circuit. Democrats have complained that Bush has floated nominees without seeking their input.

“It is my hope that we will not tie up the patent bill, but that is a possibility if we can’t find some equitable way to handle this judge issue,” Specter said.

Republicans say the Democratic-controlled Senate has dragged its feet with Bush’s nominees to the appellate courts. The Senate has confirmed six circuit nominees in the 110th Congress, and was poised to confirm a seventh, Catharina Haynes of the 5th Circuit, Thursday afternoon.

But Republicans complain that the number is short of the 15 nominees the Senate confirmed in the final two years of the Clinton administration.

Democrats say Bush has won confirmation of more than 86 percent of his nominees, compared with just 75 percent of Clinton judges that were confirmed. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) points to the 40 nominees for lower courts confirmed last year, more than each of the three years under Republican leadership.

Republicans slammed Leahy at a committee meeting last week and threatened to shut down the Senate if Democrats don’t allow votes and hearings on the stalled nominees. They are looking at a number of ways to gain leverage, and are first targeting the patent bill.

But the patent bill, which would overhaul rules on intellectual property rights, had already hit a wall after Specter, Leahy and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) were unable to reach an accord Wednesday night.

Republicans say they are looking at holding up other bills that have Democratic support, or objecting to routine proceedings on the floor.

“We tried to do it as nicely as we could in the last several months and to the extent that that doesn’t work, our caucus has expressed an interest in hearing ideas on how we might move the process forward,” said Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), who also sits on the Judiciary Committee.