Supreme Court rejects Pauline Newman bid to end suspension
The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to hear pauline newman’s challenge to her suspension from the Federal Circuit, leaving the 98-year-old judge barred from duties. Newman, appointed in 1984 by Republican President Ronald Reagan, had asked the justices to overturn the suspension and restore her to the bench.
Newman’s Federal Circuit challenge
Newman told the court that the Federal Circuit violated her constitutional rights when it suspended her from duties in 2023. She also argued that the lower court ruling wrongly said federal law barred judicial review of the suspension and said the action violated due process and the constitutional provision giving Congress the power to remove federal judges through impeachment.
In her filing, Newman wrote: “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”.
Kimberly Moore’s response
Chief Judge Kimberly Moore, represented by U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer, responded that Newman's claims are without merit. Moore said the Judicial Conference, not a federal court, is responsible for reviewing Newman’s suspension, and the Committee on Judicial Conduct and Disability of the Judicial Conference also upheld it.
The Federal Circuit’s suspension remains in place while Newman continues to seek reinstatement. That leaves in force the action taken later in 2023, when a council of all the court’s active judges unanimously voted to suspend her after finding that she refused to cooperate with an investigation into her fitness.
Federal Circuit rulings
Documents released by the court in 2023 cited staff reports of Newman's memory loss, confusion, paranoia and angry rants. Newman then sued Moore and the council in federal court in Washington, but a judge dismissed the case in 2024 after finding that courts have consistently affirmed the judiciary’s authority to police itself.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld that ruling in 2025. The Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case keeps those rulings intact and leaves Newman, the nation’s oldest federal judge, outside the Federal Circuit while her challenge has now run through multiple levels of review.
