Mr. Menendez’s Missing ‘Blue Slip’
Fair Courts E-lert
Bibliographic Info:
Source: New York Times
Date: January 9, 2012
The New York Times editorial board last week admonished Senator Robert Menendez for holding up President Obama’s nomination of Patty Shwartz to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. This was the first instance in which a Democratic senator had actively blocked one of Obama’s judicial nominee. According to the Times, Senator Mendez’s opposition to Shwartz—who was rated “unanimously well qualified” by the American Bar Association—“has the unsavory flavor of political revenge” because Shwartz’s long-time companion is employed in the prosecutor’s office that investigated Menendez in 2006. After Menendez held an “in-depth discussion” with Shwartz on Friday, however, the Senator agreed to reverse course, and said he would no longer block Shwartz’s nomination.
See also: Kate Zernicke, Menendez Drops His Opposition to Obama’s Pick for a Federal Appeals Court, New York Times, January 13, 2012.