Judge Pauline Newman has repeatedly challenged her suspension from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, where she served since 1984. A U.S. appeals court denied her bid to reinstate a lawsuit contesting that suspension, and a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit rejected her argument that the law governing judicial suspension is unconstitutional. The panel acknowledged she raised important constitutional questions but said it could only address the statutory issue and that any recourse must come from a judicial council or the Judicial Conference. Newman said concerns about judicial independence continue to deepen and she will not walk away.
A U.S. appeals court on Friday denied a bid by U.S. Circuit Judge Pauline Newman to reinstate a lawsuit challenging her suspension from serving on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, where she had heard cases since 1984. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected Newman's argument that the law governing her suspension was unconstitutional.
"The issues of judicial independence that are at stake here seem to loom larger and larger with each decision adverse to me," Newman said. "I just don't see how, in good conscience, I can walk away from this, no matter how fed up I am with everything that's going on."
[E]ven though Newman had raised "important and serious" constitutional questions about her treatment, it could only consider her challenge to the law governing judicial suspensions, and that "any recourse for Judge Newman must come from a judicial council or from the Judicial Conference."
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