The US Supreme Court declined yesterday to hear a bid by the nation’s oldest federal judge, 98-year-old Pauline Newman, to overturn her suspension from duties in 2023 during an investigation into her fitness to serve.
The justices turned away Newman’s appeal of a lower court’s decision to reject her legal challenge to her suspension from the Washington-based US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Newman had argued that the Federal Circuit violated her constitutional rights by suspending her and is seeking reinstatement.
Newman, a respected figure in patent law, was appointed in 1984 by Republican President Ronald Reagan to the Federal Circuit. It handles patent appeals nationwide and frequently rules in intellectual property cases involving major companies. A panel of Federal Circuit judges cited staff reports of Newman’s “memory loss, confusion, paranoia and angry rants” in documents released by the court in 2023. A council of all of the court’s active judges, led by Chief Judge Kimberly Moore, unanimously voted to suspend Newman later that year after finding that she refused to co-operate with an investigation into her fitness.
The Federal Circuit’s suspension of Newman remains in place. Newman has sued Moore and the council in federal court in Washington.
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