Federal Judge Fights Colleagues Trying to Force the 95-Year-Old to Retire

A 95-year-old federal judge is suing her colleagues after they allegedly pressured the nonagenarian to retire.

Pauline Newman, a federal circuit judge in the United States Court of Appeals, is guaranteed a job for life as a federal judge. She has served in her position since being appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1984 and works primarily in patent law.

However, some colleagues, such as Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals Kimberly Moore, feel it's time for the oldest active federal judge in the nation to retire.

Age has been a renewed cause for concern in the federal government, with the nation's 80-year-old President Joe Biden sparking scrutiny when opting to run for a second term—which would place him at 86 years old at the end if reelected—and Senator Dianne Feinstein, an 89-year-old Democrat from California, returning to her Congressional duties in a compromised state after suffering from shingles.

After Neman declined the request, Moore allegedly initiated a slew of strategies to prompt Newman into retirement, such as refusing to assign her new cases and stripping her of her assistant and other commodities, according to court documents seen by Newsweek.

But according to Newman, 95 isn't too old to perform her federal duties. She has since sued her colleagues for violating the Constitution, which promises her a lifetime of service unless impeached for inappropriate or illegal behavior.

However, Newman hasn't been impeached; rather, her colleagues are encouraging her to retire because of her age.

Greg Dolin, an attorney and former clerk for Newman, told Newsweek that Newman had been suspended from hearing cases pending the outcome of the investigation into her mental and physical health. Dolin alleged that this has never happened before and was, therefore, a violation of Newman's due process, considering there was no finding of misconduct, illness or injury and was the product of an "ill-formed suspicion that maybe Judge Newman had problems".

Newman is now fighting her colleagues who have formed an investigative committee to determine if she is of sound body and mind to continue her job. In the court documents, Newman deems actions pursued by the committee—such as an examination of mental and physical state—as unconstitutional search and seizure.

Court documents show that Moore alleged Newman suffered a heart attack, and her duties as a federal judge were then impacted, but the lawsuit disputes this belief.

"During the period (June 2021 through September 2021) when Chief Judge Moore claims that Judge Newman suffered a heart attack, Judge Newman sat on ten panels and issued at least eight (including majority, concurring, and dissenting) opinions," the documents read. "Had Judge Newman suffered a heart attack, it would be extremely unusual for anyone, let alone a 94-year-old person, to serve throughout that period without skipping a beat (so to speak)."

"Besides which, even were the allegation true, having coronary artery disease is simply irrelevant to one's ability to be able to carry out judicial functions," the documents said.

Moore allegedly then claimed that the health concerns affected Newman's service, but court documents countered that Newman was a member of 10 panels during that period, more than any colleague, save for two.

She and other judges have also allegedly accused Newman of a fractured mental state punctuated by "paranoid" and "bizarre" behavior, The Washington Post reported. Newman said that if she were plagued by mental or physical ailments, she hoped that she would "have the sense to step down" but feels this wasn't the case with her current state, according to the Post.

In the lawsuit, Newman is asking the court to deem the actions unconstitutional and keep the defendants from enforcing such actions.

Newman also is asking for the court to terminate the investigation into her mental and physical state and prevent the court from continuing to limit her workload or require a physical and mental exam to determine her health, as well as requesting the defendants cover all attorney fees.

Update 6/5/2023 1:16 p.m. EST: This story was updated to include comment from Greg Dolin.