Court extends suspension of 98-year-old US circuit judge Newman

By Blake Brittain
August 29, 20256:53 PM EDT
Updated 14 hours ago

WASHINGTON, Aug 29 (Reuters) - The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Friday adopted a recommendation to extend the suspension of the court's longest-serving judge for another year after determining that she had not complied with an internal investigation into her fitness to serve.

The Federal Circuit's Judicial Council, consisting of the court's active judges, said it would continue, opens new tab the suspension of 98-year-old Pauline Newman as long as she refuses to take a proposed battery of neurological tests.

SNIP
Newman is the oldest federal judge not to have taken a form of semi-retirement known as senior status. Appointed to the Federal Circuit by Republican President Ronald Reagan in 1984, Newman is a respected patent jurist and a prominent dissenter at the Washington, D.C.-based court, which frequently rules on high-stakes intellectual property cases involving major companies.

The Federal Circuit's chief judge, Kimberly Moore, said in orders made public in 2023 that Newman had shown signs of serious cognitive and physical impairment. The court suspended Newman later that year after finding that she had refused to cooperate with an investigation into her fitness.
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/court-extends-suspension-98-year-old-us-circuit-judge-newman-2025-08-29/

Irresponsible is an understatement.