Left: U.S. Circuit Judge Pauline Newman (YouTube). Right: Chief Justice John Roberts arrives before President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol, Thursday, March 7, 2024, in Washington. (Shawn Thew/Pool via AP).
The nation's oldest sitting federal judge — 99-year-old Pauline Newman, who was shelved in 2023 amid complaints about her mental health — is getting a new shot at fighting her suspension.
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts handed Newman a lifeline by transferring her suspension case to a different federal appeals panel after the nation's highest court shot down a request from Newman in June to take it up.
Roberts moved the dispute from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which suspended Newman, to the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit in August, according to an order made public Tuesday. The transfer gives Newman another opportunity to argue that she should be reinstated after the Federal Circuit suspended her following an investigation into her fitness to serve.
Newman has repeatedly fought efforts to keep her off the bench, arguing that the proceedings against her violate her constitutional rights and undermine judicial independence. Her lawyers with the New Civil Liberties Alliance sent a statement Tuesday saying Newman has sought a transfer for more than three years.
"Eleventh Circuit Chief Judge William Pryor just granted Judge Newman's request to issue an order unsealing the transfer for public knowledge," the NCLA said. The order led to Roberts' transfer being made public Tuesday. "The matter is currently pending before the Eleventh Circuit Judicial Council," the statement added.
The NCLA described the move as "welcome news" following several recent court losses.
"NCLA is delighted both that this complaint has been transferred and that the transfer is now public," NCLA President Mark Chenoweth told Law&Crime on Thursday. "We believe this action will help maintain public confidence in the judiciary's ability to redress alleged misconduct or disability."
Newman — who was suspended for another year in August 2025 after refusing to undergo "neuropsychological testing" — had asked the U.S. Supreme Court for a review of her case in June after she was rejected by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and her Federal Circuit panel. She alleges that her due process rights have been violated and that her suspension was unconstitutional and "not in accordance with the law," according to court filings.
"This petition presents questions concerning crucial constitutional and statutory aspects of lifetime tenure and judicial independence, especially the availability of judicial review for intra-branch infringements on 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 in to the bullying and retires or takes senior status, doing far more than suspending her from new case assignments."
As previously reported by Law&Crime, Newman was temporarily suspended after complaints about her demeanor and actions at work sparked an investigation. Her judicial colleagues reported concerning behaviors, including unexplained delays and habitual confusion, which led the Federal Circuit to launch its probe into the judge's mental health.
Newman, who was appointed in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan, allegedly refused to cooperate and failed to provide medical records during the circuit's investigation.
Newman and the NCLA filed a lawsuit in 2024 challenging her suspension. The group has described her removal as a threat to "judicial independence and the Constitutional separation of powers."
The Federal Circuit previously dismissed Newman and the NCLA's complaint against her suspension on jurisdictional grounds, based on its interpretation of the Judicial Council's 2001 ruling in McBryde v. Committee to Review Circuit Council Conduct & Disability Orders of the U.S. Judicial Conference. The NCLA argued that the panel "opined that McBryde was probably wrongly decided and all but invited a petition for rehearing en banc," according to a press release.
"As the panel realized, the McBryde court wrongly found that the Disability Act prevents any courts from hearing constitutional arguments challenging Judicial Council suspension orders and other disciplinary actions against judges," the NCLA said in the release. "The panel wrote that the 2001 decision 'misapplied' the Disability Act to deny court's jurisdiction over cases like this one, 'relied on a potentially strained reading of the relevant legislative history,' and 'raise[d] constitutional concerns' in itself."
In its petition to the Supreme Court, the NCLA accused the Federal Circuit of trying to silence Newman because she was known as a "judge who is famous for dissenting from her colleagues" — also known as the "Great Dissenter," per the court filing. "This administrative removal of a judge who is famous for dissenting from her colleagues, by those same colleagues, with judicial refusal to review the merits of the action, undermines the judicial independence that is a vital foundation of our constitutional design," Newman's attorneys wrote.
"Every judge who gets crosswise with her chief judge or her colleagues must now worry whether similar tactics could be used to remove them," the lawyers said.
Newman and the NCLA have argued that "Newman has continued to speak and write before the legal community, and no finding of disability has been made concerning her in the years since the unlawful administrative orders began," according to the Supreme Court petition. "She voluntarily underwent and passed three expert evaluations of her mental fitness and was reported as having the mental ability of someone decades younger," the filing said.
The Federal Circuit has previously said that reports from doctors chosen by Newman for her legal battle have contradicted information provided to the committee, including statements from a physician that Newman cited.
Findings made by medical specialists consulted by the three-judge Judicial Council of the Federal Circuit reportedly showed "major errors" in a report from a California neurosurgeon and other exams Newman presented.
Newman's team has claimed that she has been suspended longer than any judge in the "history of this country."