Defiant 98-year-old judge takes fight to Supreme Court after mental fitness suspension

A 98-year-old federal judge plans to ask the Supreme Court to revive her tossed-out lawsuit against her colleagues for suspending her from the bench.

According to Law360, U.S. Circuit Judge Pauline Newman, the longest-serving active judge on the federal bench, will be moving forward with the appeal, as per her attorney, after the full D.C. Circuit refused to take up an en banc rehearing of her challenge to the suit's dismissal.

Newman, an appointee of former President Ronald Reagan, sits on the Federal Circuit, which acts as the appeals court for a number of types of federal litigation, including patents, international trade disputes, and benefits for veterans and government employees.

The controversy began in 2023, when Newman sued after colleagues stopped assigning her cases and reassigned her law clerk on the basis that her behavior had become erratic and "paranoid," allegedly showing signs of cognitive decline. A judicial investigation alleged she suffered "significant mental deterioration" after her heart attack, writes fewer opinions than her colleagues, takes longer to write the opinions she does pen, did not complete online security training, could not find files she saved on her computer, and at one point threatened to have her staffer arrested.

Her suspension was originally intended to last a year, but has since been extended twice, as the Federal Circuit said she has not complied with an investigation into her fitness and refused to submit to neurological tests.

Newman has vehemently denied these allegations and has rebuffed suggestions to retire, saying, “It’s important to the nation, if I can say so. 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.” Additionally, she is supported by some of her colleagues, and groups like the right-wing New Civil Liberties Alliance.