95-year-old federal judge sues colleagues after they try forcing her to retire

A legal battle is brewing as federal judges accuse Pauline Newman, a 95-year-old Reagan appointee who sits on the Federal Circuit, of committing "misconduct" by refusing to retire despite being incapacitated — and she has responded by suing her colleagues and accusing them of violating the Constitution, reportedThe Washington Post.

"The court is no longer assigning Newman new cases," reported Rachel Weiner. "Newman claims she was also stripped of her assistant, a law clerk and an office computer. Kimberly Moore, the Federal Circuit’s chief judge, has written that the staffers chose to leave and that Newman’s failure to understand the situation is a sign of her decline. Some of Newman’s fellow judges in court orders have accused Newman of 'paranoid' and 'bizarre' behavior. Newman says she’s fine and it’s her colleagues who have lost their minds."

Newman has remained defiant in calls for her to step aside.

“It’s important to the nation, if I can say so,” said Newman of her refusal to retire. “If I really were debilitated, as they say, physically and mentally, I hope I’d have the sense to step down. But as it is, I feel that I can make a contribution and must. That’s what I was appointed to do.”

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But according to court orders in a judicial investigation into Newman's competence, she has shown "significant mental deterioration" after a 2021 heart attack, writes fewer opinions than other judges and takes longer, failed to complete online security training, blames "hackers" for being unable to find where she saved files on her computer, forgets court rules in her decisions, and even allegedly threatened to have a staffer arrested over a dispute.