‘Paranoid’ Incidents Necessitate Newman Exam, Fed. Cir. Says

The Federal Circuit’s oldest and longest-serving member must release medical records that could help explain “observed changes” in her behavior that led to a probe into whether she’s fit to remain on the bench, new documents out of the appeals court say.

A panel including Chief Judge Kimberly A. Moore clarified requests for Judge Pauline Newman to turn over her health records and undergo a neurology exam—which she noted the 95-year-old jurist has not yet complied with—in an order released Tuesday. It emphasized the information is necessary to investigate an alleged mental decline that’s suspected to be affecting Newman’s work.

“Multiple court staff members have reported concerns that Judge Newman cannot remember from day to day how to perform simple tasks such as logging into the computer network or remembering where files have been saved (and in seeking help on these matters she has appeared ‘paranoid’ and repeatedly insisted her devices are hacked and bugged),” according to the order.

The new details come after Newman sued her colleagues in federal district court last week, alleging she’s been unfairly targeted over her health and performance on the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Moore initiated the complaint against Newman earlier this year under the 1980 Judicial Conduct and Disability Act. Judges Richard G. Taranto and Sharon Prost also sit on the judicial panel investigating Newman’s fitness.

‘Bizarre,’ ‘Nonsensical’

According to the court’s Tuesday order, the oversight is more than warranted. Staff members described Newman as “agitated” and said she engaged in “bizarre” and “nonsensical” conversations, the order said, including unsubstantiated claims that she was being spied on by the court itself as well as “bloggers and the media who were out to get her and bring her down.”

“Multiple witnesses” have reported that Newman “threatened to have one staff member arrested and removed from the building,” while two of her five staff members recently resigned and “requested no further contact” with her, the order noted.

She also repeatedly failed a mandatory security compliance training because she couldn’t retain information from a video long enough to answer multiple-choice questions about it, the order said. Furthermore, she referred to a former chief judge—who’s been dead for nearly 17 years—as still being in charge of the court, it said.

These incidents add to the “overwhelming evidence raising concerns about whether Judge Newman currently suffers from a disability that makes her unable to efficiently perform the duties of her office,” the health-related order said.

The Federal Circuit panel ordered that Newman be evaluated by a neurologist and neuropsychologist and that she respond to the committee’s demand for an examination by next week.

It also ordered that she release to the neurologist records from “any treatment provider in the last two years regarding mental acuity, attention, focus, confusion, memory loss, fatigue, or stamina” within 30 days.

The order also denied Newman’s request to transfer the judicial complaint to a different circuit. Newman had argued that her own colleagues couldn’t preside over the probe “without creating the appearance of prejudice—if not actual prejudice.”

In a second Tuesday order, the panel clarified the scope of a confidentiality order that barred Newman from discussing details of the probe that aren’t already public.

Counsel for Newman didn’t immediately respond to a request seeking comment.

The New Civil Liberties Alliance represents Newman in her lawsuit.

The case is IN RE COMPLAINT NO. 23-90015, Fed. Cir., orders 5/16/23.