Oldest active federal judge asks Supreme Court to lift suspension
Judge Pauline Newman, now age 98, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in May 2023. (Photo by Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
A 98-year-old judge—who's also the oldest active federal judge—petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday to lift her suspension from hearing new cases.
Judge Pauline Newman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit will turn 99 years old in June. The Federal Circuit’s judicial council suspended Newman from hearing new cases in 2023 because she refused to submit to medical evaluations to probe allegations that she suffered from memory loss and confusion.
Newman argues that the suspension is the equivalent of removing a federal judge, an action reserved for Congress under its impeachment powers.
Her benching “threatens the principle of judicial independence and may violate the separation of powers,” according to the petition.
Newman’s lawsuit challenges the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act, which authorizes judicial councils to investigate allegations of disability against federal judges, as an unconstitutional impeachment that violated her due process rights.
In August 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that it did not have jurisdiction to review the bulk of Newman’s challenge to her suspension, according to prior reporting by the ABA Journal.
Bloomberg Law and Law360 also had coverage.
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