96-Year-Old Judge Releases Medical Test as Suspension Vote Looms

Veteran Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman released a batch of information including a recent medical evaluation to buttress her position that an investigation into her mental health and fitness to serve on the bench is unjustified.

Miami-based adult forensic psychiatrist Regina Carney gave Newman high marks in the medical report released Thursday after conducting an evaluation last month.

“In summary, this is a fluent, engaging, strong-willed, highly accomplished and unusually cognitively intact 96-year-old woman with chronic medical issues that appear well-controlled at the current time, with no evidence of current substantial medical, psychiatric, or cognitive disability,” wrote Carney, who said she is employed full time at the Miami Veteran’s Administration Medical Center.

A special investigative committee made up of Newman’s colleagues on the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Aug. 4 recommended suspending the 96-year-old judge from receiving new case assignments for a year, citing her unwillingness to undergo neurological testing with a doctor of the panel’s choice. The panel began the investigation earlier this year, alleging Newman had suffered a cardiac event and a fainting spell in 2022 and was slow in issuing opinions compared to the rest of her colleagues.

Lawyers representing Newman at the New Civil Liberties Alliance fired back Thursday, posting the results of a recent three-hour medical examination and a YouTube video featuring excerpts from an interview with the judge.

“I thought that it was ridiculous and that I should not succumb or set a pattern of judicial colleagues being able to bully and intimidate and force out a colleague they don’t like who writes dissents,” Newman said in the interview.

Newman’s attorney retained Carney to evaluate the judge, and Newman paid the fees for her services, according to the report. Carney administered a Modified Mini-Mental Status Exam on Aug. 25, the results of which were posted along with her report. Newman nearly aced the 100-point test.

The judge correctly supplied the answer for several current and past US politicians including the president—"President Biden"— and the previous president, “The Infamous Trump.”

Newman lost two points when she named eight four-legged animals, rather than 10 or more, in a 20-second period.

“She was dismayed to hear of this result,” Carney said, “and scolded herself for not thinking of barnyard animals as a category.”

In the video interview, Newman denied having any heart attack, as the Federal Circuit committee at one point asserted, and denied a fainting incident that the committee alleged occurred in 2022.

When questioned about her medical history for the examination by Carney, Newman reported having an isolated fainting incident in April 2023, or “a single event of syncope” in Carney’s words. Newman told the doctor that she’d been dehydrated at the time.

She also explained how she’d fractured her wrist. The judge injured herself while “sprinting to take a photo of cardinals seen outside her apartment” according to the report.

It is unclear if the new medical test results will influence Newman’s colleagues. She previously provided the committee with results from a test with Ted Rothstein, who practices and teaches at the George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences.

The investigative panel concluded that Rothstein’s report “provides no justification for her refusal to undergo medical examinations with independent professionals chosen by the committee.”

In its 111-page report, the panel said Rothstein’s report contained “internal inconsistencies on critical points.” Rothstein said in a recent interview with Bloomberg Law that the committee had distorted certain aspects of his report.