Washington — The Supreme Court on Monday turned away Judge Pauline Newman’s bid to return to service on a federal appeals court after she was suspended from hearing cases due to concerns about her fitness to serve.
Newman, who is 98, has served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit since 1984. Established in 1982, the Federal Circuit hears appeals in cases involving international trade, patents, trademarks, veterans’ benefits and money claims against the U.S. government.
Across her more than four decades on the Federal Circuit, Newman has authored more than 300 dissenting opinions, earning her the nickname the “Great Dissenter.”
But three years ago, the Judicial Council for the Federal Circuit, which consists of the circuit judges in active service, suspended Newman from hearing cases. The court’s chief judge, Kimberly Moore, also told Newman she could either retire or consider senior status, a form of semi-retirement in which judges take on a lighter caseload.
After Newman refused either option, Moore entered an order that identified a judicial complaint against the then-96-year-old judge and found “there is probable cause to believe that Judge Newman’s health has left her without the capacity to perform the work of an active judge and that her habitual delays are prejudicial to the efficient administration of justice.”
Moore’s filing referenced health issues Newman suffered in the summer of 2021 and a fainting episode in 2022, and said judges and staff on the Federal Circuit had expressed concerns about Newman’s inability to keep up with her workload.
Moore and a special committee of two Federal Circuit judges then investigated Newman’s fitness to continue serving and ordered the judge to submit to neurological and neuropsychological testing. The panel also requested she turn over medical records and participate in an interview.
While Newman provided expert reports from two doctors, the committee recommended Newman “not be permitted to hear any cases” for one year, subject to renewal. The Judicial Council approved the recommendation in September 2023.
Newman asked a panel of the Judicial Conference of the United States, the policy-making body for the federal courts, to review her suspension, though it rejected her arguments in February 2024.
The Federal Circuit then renewed Newman’s suspension for another year in September 2024, and again in August 2025.
Amid her suspension, Newman filed a lawsuit against Moore and her colleagues on the Federal Circuit and sought to prevent the Judicial Council from taking action against her in the future. The judge argued that the panel violated the Constitution by effectively removing her from office despite life tenure protections and denied her due process.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ultimately ruled against Newman, finding that the Disability Act prevents litigants from bringing certain constitutional challenges to a judicial council’s authority.
In urging the Supreme Court to take up her case, Newman’s lawyers claimed that Moore was circumventing the Constitution’s protections for federal judges in an attempt to sideline a judge she doesn’t want to serve with. They also accused the Federal Circuit judges of trying to silence a colleague who often dissents.
“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 lawyers wrote in a filing. “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 Justice Department, which represented Moore and the other judges, urged the Supreme Court to turn away Newman’s case.
