96-Year-Old Judge Deadlocks With Appeals Panel on Fitness Probe

A special committee of three Federal Circuit judges and the 96-year-old colleague whose mental fitness for the appeals court they’re investigating, Judge Pauline Newman, have failed to resolve her lawsuit against them through mediation, according to a status report filed Friday.

Newman and the committee—it comprises US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Chief Judge Kimberly A. Moore and Judges Sharon Prost and Richard G. Taranto—told the US District Court for the District of Columbia that “mediation was unsuccessful,” so they asked to resume briefing on Newman’s bid to block Newman’s suspension from hearing new cases.

The fitness ...