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Judge Pauline Newman, the oldest federal judge in America at age 97, is continuing to fight against a suspension from the bench by her colleagues who found her mentally not fit enough to serve. Newman is appealing her suspension and has also filed a motion to unseal documents related to an investigation which ultimately led to her being temporarily removed from the bench.
Newman, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1985 to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, was barred from serving in September 2023 for a year by the Federal Circuit’s Judicial Council after the panel said she refused to cooperate with an investigation into “reasonable concerns” surrounding her mental fitness. The suspension was extended for another year by the panel in September.
The Committee on Judicial Conduct conducted more than 20 interviews with court staff pointing to her “significant mental deterioration including memory loss, confusion, lack of comprehension, paranoia, anger, hostility and severe agitation,” per court documents.
U.S. Circuit Judge Pauline Newman is fighting her suspension. Newman is pictured delivering remarks at a reception honoring her life and work at George Mason University during their annual Center for Intellectual Property x Innovation Policy conference in Arlington, Virginia, on Oct. 12, 2023. (REUTERS/Leah Millis)
The suspension order also said Newman was slower than her colleagues in issuing opinions and had “amassed a troubling backlog of cases,” which her team has said is not accurate.
The Federal Circuit Court on which Newman has served for nearly 40 years deals frequently with patent, intellectual property and copyright cases. Newman is considered a leading intellectual property jurist.
The investigation into Newman led her to file a federal lawsuit against her fellow judges.
U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper, a President Obama appointee, threw out most of Newman’s lawsuit in February, then dismissed the entire case on the pleadings in July, per Law & Crime.
In his 15-page ruling, Cooper rejected the legal challenges Newman had raised to the Judicial Conduct & Disability Act and did not focus on the factual allegations against Newman.
Newman appealed the ruling Monday and argued via counsel to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that although advanced in age, she “retains her sharp intellect,” and both lay and expert witnesses have described her as an “unusually cognitively intact … woman” whose cognitive and physical abilities make her appear “20 or more years younger than her stated age,” per Law & Crime.
She says she is physically and mentally fit enough to continue doing her job, and has obtained independent evaluations from doctors issuing the same opinion, court documents revealed.
Pauline Newman, pictured in her office in Washington, D.C., in May 2023. Newman is the nation’s oldest federal judge. (Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
REAGAN-APPOINTED JUDGE, NOW 95, FACES PROBE INTO WHETHER SHE CAN STILL DO THE JOB
In the appellate brief, cited by Law & Crime, Newman’s counsel said she was in sound mental and physical health, and argued that the only reason Newman was late in submitting written opinions is that “she takes extraordinary pains to ensure that her opinions fully reflect her views and remain consistent from case to case and year to year.”
Newman is being represented in the lawsuit by the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), a nonprofit civil rights group that says it views the “administrative state” as an especially serious threat to constitutional freedoms.
The group says that the suspension is illegal and that Newman was removed without due process.
“Judge Newman’s indefinite, complete suspension is unprecedented in American judicial history, exceeding sanctions imposed on judges who committed serious misconduct and improprieties,” the group said in a statement. “Suspending an Article III judge from all judicial functions of her office is unconstitutional.”
The group said that world-renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Aaron G. Filler recently directed a cutting-edge Perfusion Computed Tomography (PCT) scan of Newman’s brain and administered a full neurological examination that turned up “no relevant deficits, confirming that she is fully fit to perform the duties of the office.”
On Thursday, Greg Dolin, who has represented Newman throughout the case, said via a statement that the entire disciplinary process against Judge Newman was “always factually baseless and legally meritless.”
“But the issues are more important than Judge Newman,” said Dolin, a senior litigation counsel for the NCLA. “At stake is the very independence of American judiciary and our system of checks and balances. The D.C. Circuit should put a stop to the Federal Circuit Judicial Council’s unconstitutional and ultra vires actions against Judge Newman.”
U.S. Circuit Judge Pauline Newman going through paperwork in her chambers in Washington, D.C., on June 23, 2023. (Haiyun Jiang/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Newman also filed a motion to unseal documents related to the committee’s investigation and findings that are subject to a Dec. 4 gag order, per Law & Crime.
Newman’s legal team said that Newman’s judicial colleagues have refused to abide by rules of judicial conduct and have “threatened Judge Newman and her counsel with unspecified sanctions” for making documents public.
Her team also accused the defendants of seeking to “direct the process within their own forum” in an “entirely inappropriate effort” to contradict the law.
Former senior U.S. District Judge Wesley Brown, was the oldest person to serve as a federal judge in the history of the United States, actively hearing cases until approximately one month before his death at age 104, according to the U.S. Courts.
