Menendez reverses his blocking of a Circuit Court appointee

A week after he was criticized as blocking her appointment for political payback, U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D., N.J.) reversed himself Friday and said he would support the nomination of a Newark judge to the federal appeals court in Philadelphia.

Menendez said he had a change of heart after he spoke with Judge Patty Shwartz earlier in the day. He previously indicated he had been unimpressed with Shwartz during an interview and thought she was unqualified for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

In their subsequent meeting, "Judge Shwartz satisfactorily answered questions covering important legal topics such as current law on the rights of corporations under the First Amendment, constitutional limits on Executive Branch power, and the application of heightened standards of review under the Constitution," Menendez said in a statement.

"She adequately allayed my earlier concerns, and I will be returning my blue slip," he said, referring to the approval form traditionally sent to the home-state senators of a court appointee.

Menendez is the first Democrat to reject a judicial appointment by President Obama. It is unusual for a senator who belongs to a president's political party to withhold a blue slip or to reject one of his nominees, a Senate Judiciary Committee spokeswoman said.

The White House welcomed Menendez's reversal.

"President Obama only nominates the most qualified individuals, and Sen. Menendez shares those same standards," a White House official said in a statement. "Again, we regret that his motives were questioned, and we recognize that he takes his responsibility to advise and consent seriously."

Some thought Menendez's problem with Shwartz was personal. She has had a decades-long relationship with a federal prosecutor who investigated him in 2006.

Menendez, who was never charged in the corruption probe, denied that he had blocked Shwartz's appointment as part of a "petty political vendetta."

During her first interview, Shwartz "did not adequately demonstrate the breadth of knowledge of constitutional law and pivotal Supreme Court decisions . . . that we should expect from a U.S. Circuit Court judge," Menendez, who is a lawyer, said in a statement last week.

A Senate insider called Menendez's criticism "laughable." Shwartz received the highest possible rating from the American Bar Association and has been supported by the state's senior U.S. senator, Democrat Frank Lautenberg.