Judge Newman Argues Her Lawsuit Seeking Reinstatement Isn’t Moot

Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman told a federal district court her lawsuit challenging a decision suspending her from taking new cases on the court she’s sat on for four decades shouldn’t be cut short, even if her initial suspension was lifted.

Newman—who at 96 is the oldest active judge on the federal bench and a trailblazer in the male-dominated world of patent law—responded Wednesday to briefing from her colleagues seeking dismissal of her suit. In particular, she urged Judge Christopher R. Cooper of the US District Court for the District of Columbia to reject their argument that the suit was moot because one of several of her suspensions was lifted, as there’s nothing stopping a later repeat action.

Newman’s been the target of multiple suspension orders emanating out of an investigation into her mental and physical health spearheaded by Kimberly A. Moore, chief judge of the court.

In an April email Moore told the court’s judges that Newman would “not be assigned any new cases” as the probe progressed, based on a unanimous vote by the three investigating judges. On June 5, the Federal Circuit’s Judicial Council formally suspended Newman from new assignments, citing a backlog of cases she’d already accumulated. Then on Sept. 20 her colleagues suspended her for a year due to her refusal to sit for a full neurological examination with a doctor chosen by the court.

Newman sued her colleagues in May. Then, shortly after the June 5 suspension, she sought a preliminary injunction seeking immediate reinstatement to her full active judicial duties.

In mid-November her colleagues responded to say Newman’s suit was moot, noting that the June 5 suspension—a focus of Newman’s preliminary injunction motion—had been lifted on Nov. 9 after the judge cleared her case backlog.

“It is quite reasonable to expect that if and when Judge Newman is restored to the bench” she is “likely to continue writing opinions at the same pace she has always been writing them,” Newman said in her Wednesday filing. That, in turn, would mean she could get a bigger backlog of cases than other judges making her the target of a new suspension order.

Since her fellow jurists “seem to believe that this pace entitles them to suspend Judge Newman from the bench, their conduct is ‘capable of repetition,’” Newman argued, citing the standard for overcoming dismissals on mootness grounds.

New Civil Liberties Alliance represents Newman. The Justice Department represents the Federal Circuit Judicial Council and members of the court’s special investigative committee.

The case is Newman v. Moore, D.D.C., 1:23-cv-1334, sur-reply 12/6/23.