(Reuters) – Judge Pauline Newman on Wednesday lost a bid to persuade the federal court system’s governing body to review her suspension from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit amid an unusually public internal investigation into the 96-year-old jurist’s fitness to serve.
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The Judicial Conference of the United States’ Committee on Judicial Conduct and Disability said in a written decision, opens new tab that Newman did not have good cause to refuse to cooperate with the appeals court’s investigation and that the court’s other judges did not abuse their discretion by suspending her.
Newman’s attorney Greg Dolin said on Wednesday that they were disappointed with the decision but would continue to challenge the suspension in Washington, D.C. federal court and take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia considered the Federal Circuit judicial council’s bid to dismiss Newman’s lawsuit over her suspension in January and has not yet issued a decision.
Newman was appointed to the patent-focused U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit by President Ronald Reagan in 1984. She is known as a highly respected figure in patent law and a prominent dissenter at the court.
The Federal Circuit’s chief judge, Kimberly Moore, said in orders made public last April that Newman had shown signs of cognitive and physical impairment and accused her of refusing to cooperate with inquiries into her mental health.
Court employees described “memory loss, confusion, paranoia and angry rants” from Newman in documents released by the circuit last August. The filings also said that Newman had mishandled internal staff matters and failed to promptly address a large backlog of cases.
The circuit’s judicial council, made up of the court’s active judges, suspended Newman in September for at least one year or until she sits for court-ordered medical examinations.
Newman has defended her mental fitness and made several public appearances since her suspension, including as an observer at a Federal Circuit hearing on Monday.
A seven-judge panel of the Judicial Conference said on Wednesday that the Federal Circuit had “voluminous evidence” to justify its order for medical testing and upheld its decision to reject two reports from doctors of Newman’s choosing.
The conference also said that the suspension did not exceed the judicial council’s authority and that the council’s judges were not required to recuse themselves or move the investigation to a different circuit.
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