The U.S. Senate has returned President Donald Trump's nomination of Guam Superior Court Judge Maria Cenzon to the District Court of Guam. According to Senate rules her nomination can no long be considered, unless the new president selects her again.

Judge Cenzon was nominated by President Trump on November 30 of last year. But according to the Senate Judiciary Committee website, her nomination was returned on January 3, under the provisions of Senate Rule 31. It states "Nominations neither confirmed nor rejected during the session at which they are made shall not be acted upon at any succeeding session without being again made to the senate by the president."

That means Judge Cenzon would have to be nominated again by the next president, Joe Biden.

Reacting today on The Link, Lieutenant Governor Josh Tenorio was non-committal on whether their administration would recommend Cenzon to the Biden administration, or opt to keep current chief judge, Frances Tydingco Gatewood, whose ten-year appointment expired several years ago.

"I'll tell you that the governor and judge have had some conversations. The governor has spoken to many folks, and so I'll just say this that it's for the governor herself to talk about but I would tell you that the governor had previously already endorsed the reappointment of Chief Judge Frances Tydingco Gatewood since last year," said Tenorio.

"It's really just a matter of the political process, right now the political process is not being controlled by anybody in Guam. It's really a part of the national scheme here where unfortunately Judge Cenzon, who has cleared the FBI, has been vetted, has been shown to be a good excellent candidate is up there but, it's going to be…who knows. I would say it's a stressful situation, I'm sure, for both judges."

The lieutenant governor also points out that while federal judges in the territories serve ten-year terms, their counterparts in the 50 states are appointed for life.