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U.S. Circuit Judge Pauline Newman (YouTube).
The U.S. Supreme Court connected Monday changeable down a petition from the nation's oldest sitting national judge, 98-year-old Pauline Newman, to instrumentality up her suspension case aft she was shelved successful 2024 amid complaints astir her intelligence health.
Newman — who was suspended for different year successful August 2025 aft refusing to acquisition "neuropsychological testing" — had asked for a reappraisal of her lawsuit aft she was rejected by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and a Federal Circuit panel. She alleges that her owed process rights person been violated and that her suspension was unconstitutional and "not successful accordance with the law," according to tribunal filings.
"This petition presents questions concerning important law and statutory aspects of beingness tenure and judicial independence, particularly the availability of judicial reappraisal for intra-branch infringements connected judicial service," Newman's petition to the Supreme Court said. "Chief Judge Moore has invoked the Disability Act improperly to perpetually sideline Judge Newman until she gives successful to the bullying and retires oregon takes elder status, doing acold much than suspending her from caller lawsuit assignments."
As antecedently reported by Law&Crime, Newman was temporarily suspended aft complaints astir her demeanor and actions astatine enactment sparked an investigation. Her judicial colleagues reported concerning behaviors, including unexplained delays and habitual confusion, which led the Federal Circuit to motorboat its probe into the judge's intelligence health.
Newman, who was appointed successful 1984 by President Ronald Reagan, allegedly refused to cooperate and failed to supply aesculapian records during the circuit's investigation.
The New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), which is representing Newman successful a suit filed successful 2024 challenging her suspension, has described her removal arsenic a menace to "judicial independency and the Constitutional separation of powers." A Federal Circuit sheet antecedently dismissed Newman and the NCLA's ailment against her suspension connected jurisdictional grounds, based connected its mentation of the Judicial Council's 2001 ruling successful McBryde v. Committee to Review Circuit Council Conduct & Disability Orders of the U.S. Judicial Conference.
The NCLA argued the sheet "opined that McBryde was astir apt wrongly decided and each but invited a petition for rehearing en banc," according to a press release.
"As the sheet realized, the McBryde tribunal wrongly recovered that the Disability Act prevents immoderate courts from proceeding law arguments challenging Judicial Council suspension orders and different disciplinary actions against judges," the NCLA merchandise explained. "The sheet wrote that the 2001 determination 'misapplied' the Disability Act to contradict court's jurisdiction implicit cases similar this one, 'relied connected a perchance strained speechmaking of the applicable legislative history,' and 'raise[d] law concerns' successful itself."
In its petition to the Supreme Court, the NCLA accused the Federal Circuit of trying to soundlessness Newman arsenic she was known arsenic a "judge who is celebrated for dissenting from her colleagues" — besides known arsenic the "Great Dissenter," per the tribunal filing.
"This administrative removal of a justice who is celebrated for dissenting from her colleagues, by those aforesaid colleagues, with judicial refusal to reappraisal the merits of the action, undermines the judicial independency that is simply a captious instauration of our law design," Newman's lawyers wrote. "Every justice who gets crosswise with her main justice oregon her colleagues indispensable present interest whether akin tactics could beryllium utilized to region them."
Newman and the NCLA pointed retired however "Newman has continued to talk and constitute earlier the ineligible community, and nary uncovering of disablement has been made concerning her successful the years since the unlawful administrative orders began," according to the Supreme Court petition. "She voluntarily underwent and passed 3 adept evaluations of her intelligence fittingness and was reported arsenic having the intelligence quality of idiosyncratic decades younger," the filing said.
The Federal Circuit has antecedently said that reports from doctors chosen by Newman for her ineligible conflict person contradicted accusation provided to the committee, including statements from a doc that Newman cited.
Findings made by aesculapian specialists consulted by the three-judge Judicial Council of the Federal Circuit showed "major errors" successful a study from a California neurosurgeon and different exams Newman presented.
One issue, the assembly said, included the usage of a "CT Perfusion scan" arsenic a substitute for neuropsychological testing. According to Dr. James M. Noble, prof of neurology astatine Columbia University Irving Medical Center and 1 of the council's aesculapian consultants, this benignant of scan "can lone show that a portion of the encephalon is efficaciously receiving blood" and "even an country of the encephalon efficaciously receiving humor tin inactive beryllium dysfunctional," per the doctor.
Newman's squad has claimed that she has been suspended longer than immoderate justice successful the "history of this country."
"Preventing her from serving successful her constitutionally appointed relation poses a dire menace to judicial independency and infringes the separation of powers," the NCLA has said.
A connection sent retired by the radical connected Monday said Newman's ineligible squad was "disappointed" by the Supreme Court's denial.
"It is simply a acheronian time for the independency of the national judiciary," said NCLA president Mark Chenoweth. "The cert denial successful this lawsuit means that Judge Newman's owed process and different complaints astir the mode Chief Judge Moore and the Federal Circuit Judicial Council person treated her ne'er person and ne'er volition person a merits determination from an Article III court. That is utterly inexcusable and genuinely inexplicable."
The U.S. Justice Department, which is representing the Federal Circuit, had said successful tribunal filings that the "sensible" determination would beryllium for the Supreme Court to sprout down Newman's appeal.
"The petition fails this court's criteria for reappraisal galore times over," the DOJ argued. "Petitioner identifies nary plausible struggle among the circuit courts warranting this court's review."
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