US appeals court panel recommends extending suspension of 98-year-old judge

By Blake Brittain

WASHINGTON, August 29 (Reuters) - A committee of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recommended on Monday that the court extend its suspension of 98-year-old judge Pauline Newman for another year after determining that she had not complied with an internal investigation into her fitness to serve on the Washington, D.C.-based court.

The three-judge investigative committee determined that reports from doctors chosen by Newman did not eliminate the need for her to undertake "a full neuropsychological battery of tests" to ascertain whether she was capable of continuing to serve.

Newman said in an email that the recommendation "further violates the Constitution as well as several provisions of the Judicial Disability and Misconduct Act on which this action is purportedly based," and that she intends to "continue the battle."

"Thus far my accusers have avoided any litigation or objective judicial review that could expose the truth, and I am concerned lest these travesties of procedure and law acquire precedential force, placing a cloud on any judge of divergent policy or politics, or even a judge who writes dissents," Newman said.

"If the courts ratify this threat to judicial independence, it may affect the public's faith in the federal judiciary as the foundation of constitutional democracy."

Newman's attorney Greg Dolin said on Monday that the committee did not take sufficient time to consider their arguments, noting that the court published its 90-page opinion just days after a July 24 hearing on the suspension. "The idea that they took anything we said seriously" was "just laughable," he told Reuters.

Dolin argued during the hearing that the court had enough information from several medical experts to resolve the investigation and end Newman's suspension, according to a transcript.

A spokesperson for the Federal Circuit declined to comment on the ruling.

Newman is the oldest federal judge not to have taken a form of semi-retirement known as senior status. Appointed to the Federal Circuit by Republican President Ronald Reagan in 1984, Newman is a respected patent jurist and a prominent dissenter at the Washington, D.C.-based court, which frequently rules on high-stakes intellectual property cases involving major companies.

The Federal Circuit's chief judge, Kimberly Moore, said in orders made public in 2023 that Newman had shown signs of serious cognitive and physical impairment. The court suspended Newman later that year after finding that she had refused to cooperate with an investigation into her fitness.

Newman has maintained that she is fit to serve and sued the council over her suspension. A judge dismissed her case last year, and a separate federal appeals court in Washington is currently considering whether to revive it.

Newman has submitted reports from neurologists vouching for her mental fitness. The Federal Circuit committee on Monday expressed concerns about the reports' credibility, finding that they contained misstatements about her health and that her medical records contained concerns about fainting episodes and impaired memory.

"The expanded record leaves no doubt that the neuropsychological testing ordered by the committee from the outset is necessary," it said.