Azernews.Az

The U.S. Senator Robert Menendez blocks President Barack Obama's nomination of candidate for ambassador to Azerbaijan, The Washington Post reported.

"Sen. Robert Menendez in the context of his utterly unjustified derailing of President Obama's nomination of a highly qualified foreign service officer to be ambassador to Azerbaijan," the report says.

Menendez is holding up Obama's nomination of a highly qualified federal judge, Patty Shwartz.

"In my opinion, Judge Shwartz did not adequately demonstrate the breadth of knowledge of constitutional law and pivotal Supreme Court decisions . . . that we should expect from a United States Circuit Court judge," the senator said in the Jan. 6 statement.

Judge Shwartz graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and has served as a magistrate judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey for the past nine years.

Menendez's office says the senator communicated specific and serious concerns about Judge Shwartz's qualifications for the appeals court before she was nominated.

Obama appointed a career diplomat, former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary Matthew Bryza as ambassador to Azerbaijan bypass the Senate on Dec.29, 2010, which a few months blocked his nomination under pressure of pro-Armenian senators Barbara Boxer and Robert Menendez.

In late December Bryza ended his mission in Azerbaijan and left for the U.S..