Supreme Court chief justice hands 99-year-old judge lifeline in yearslong suspension battle
Washington Examiner · RC · trust 39/100
Chief Justice John Roberts has handed 99-year-old U.S. Circuit Judge Pauline Newman a lifeline in her yearslong fight against a suspension imposed by her colleagues, transferring the judicial disability dispute to a federal appeals court.
Roberts moved the complaint from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit on Aug. 19, according to an order made public Tuesday by its Chief Judge William Pryor. The chief judge of the appeals court disclosed the transfer on Tuesday at Newman’s request, according to a published order.
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Pauline Newman, judge with the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in her chambers in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, June 23, 2023. Newman cannot hear new cases until a probe into her fitness to remain on the bench is resolved, a development in an uncharacteristically public employment dispute within the judiciary that is drawing fresh attention to the consequences of lifetime appointments for federal judges. Photographer: Haiyun Jiang/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The Federal Circuit suspended Newman from hearing cases in September 2023 amid allegations from court employees that she had displayed “memory loss, confusion, paranoia and angry rants.” Newman, who was 96 at the time, has denied that she is unfit to serve.
The transfer gives Newman, the nation’s oldest federal judge, an opportunity to make her case before judges outside the court that suspended her. Her suspension remains in effect while the 11th Circuit Judicial Council considers the matter.
Newman and her attorneys at the New Civil Liberties Alliance had sought a transfer for more than three years, arguing that the Federal Circuit could not impartially assess its own treatment of her.
“NCLA is delighted both that this complaint has been transferred and that the transfer is now public,” Mark Chenoweth, the group’s president and chief legal officer, said in a statement on Tuesday. “We believe this action will help maintain public confidence in the judiciary’s ability to redress alleged misconduct or disability.”
FILE – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Aug. 22, 2007, in Washington. Judge Pauline Newman, a 96-year-old U.S. federal appeals court judge, has been barred from hearing cases for a year after a panel said she refused to undergo medical testing over concerns she’s no longer mentally fit to serve on the bench. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari, File)
The Federal Circuit, a Washington-based appeals court with nationwide jurisdiction over patent cases, opened its investigation into Newman’s fitness in 2023. The court requested that she undergo neuropsychological examinations, but Newman refused, instead pointing to evaluations by doctors of her choosing that she said demonstrated her fitness.
The court’s active judges, led by Chief Judge Kimberly Moore, unanimously approved Newman’s suspension after concluding that she had failed to cooperate with the investigation. Newman also rejected overtures from her colleagues to take senior status.
Newman has maintained that she remains capable of serving and argued that the Federal Circuit’s handling of the investigation violated her constitutional rights and denied her due process.
The Committee on Judicial Conduct and Disability of the Judicial Conference of the United States previously upheld the suspension. In June, the Supreme Court declined without explanation to hear Newman’s separate lawsuit seeking reinstatement, ending that challenge after lower federal courts refused to revive it under existing precedent.
The transfer to the 11th Circuit does not return Newman to the bench or resolve the competing claims about her fitness, though it places the judicial disability proceeding before a new council that will consider the matter outside the Federal Circuit.
Newman’s dispute has implications beyond her case because it tests the limits of how the judiciary can sideline a life-tenured judge who has not resigned, taken senior status, or been removed through impeachment.
Newman’s attorneys have characterized the renewable suspension on her as an unlawful de facto removal, while her colleagues maintain that withholding case assignments is justified by her refusal to cooperate with their fitness investigation.
Newman, who turned 99 in June, was appointed to the Federal Circuit by former President Ronald Reagan in 1984. She is the court’s longest-serving judge and a prominent figure in patent law, known for frequently writing dissents in consequential intellectual property disputes.
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