Patty Shwartz

Patricia Shwartz (born 1961) is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Early life and education Shwartz was born in Paterson, New Jersey. She grew up in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, where she attended Hebrew school and became bat mitzvah at Congregation Beth Shalom. She graduated from Pompton Lakes High School. Shwartz earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Rutgers University in 1983, with highest honors, and her Juris Doctor from University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1986, where she was a member of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review.

Shwartz clerked for Judge Harold A. Ackerman of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey from 1987 to 1989. She then worked for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey from 1989 until 2003. During this time she held the following positions: Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division (1995 to 1999), Chief of the Criminal Division (1999 to 2001 and 2002 to 2003) and Executive Assistant United States Attorney (2001 to 2002). Since 2009, Shwartz had taught as an adjunct professor of law at Fordham University School of Law and Rutgers Law School.

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit Shwartz was recommended for a judgeship on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit by Senator Frank Lautenberg. On October 5, 2011 she was nominated by President Barack Obama to a judgeship on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

In January 2012, The New York Times reported that New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez had not returned his blue slip for Shwartz's nomination—effectively blocking her nomination, since nominees typically do not go forward without home-state senator support, signified by the return of a blue slip. Menendez gave no public reason why he was blocking the nomination, although The Times noted that Shwartz "has been in a relationship for more than two decades" with the head of the public corruption unit for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey, which investigated Menendez in 2006 in an inquiry that Menendez has "long contended was politically motivated." Some lawyers and judges in New Jersey speculated that Menendez was "acting out of resentment, rather than any concern about Judge Shwartz's qualifications." The Times reported that in response to Menendez's obstruction, the White House had been declining to nominate U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael A. Shipp, Menendez’s choice, to a vacancy on the District Court for the District of New Jersey. On January 3, 2013, at the beginning of the new Congress, Obama renominated Shwartz to the judgeship. Her nomination was reported to the floor by the Senate Judiciary Committee on February 14, 2013. She received her commission the following day. Judge Stephanos Bibas dissented. In a subsequent decision in 2020, the Supreme Court reversed, upholding the Trump administration regulation.

In 2019, in a decision written by Shwartz, the Third Circuit held that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's collection of tolls on the Pennsylvania Turnpike does not violate the Commerce Clause because Congress permitted state authorities to collect such tolls and to use the proceeds for non-Turnpike purposes. The decision also held that the imposition of tolls did not infringe a constitutional right to travel "because plaintiffs have not alleged that their right to travel to, from, and within Pennsylvania has been deterred." The decision upheld a district court decision dismissing the suit brought by the Owner–Operator Independent Drivers Association, a trucking lobby group.

In July 2020, Shwartz wrote for the unanimous panel when it found that a payday lender owned by the Otoe–Missouria Tribe of Indians could not compel arbitration to defeat a RICO class action lawsuit brought by borrowers because the choice of law clause in the loans had adopted only the tribe's own law.

Personal life Shwartz is the longtime companion of James Nobile, the head of the public corruption unit for New Jersey's federal prosecutor. She has been a resident of East Rutherford, New Jersey.