NCLA NEWS: NCLA Asks D.C. District Court to Halt Illegal Suspension of Hon. Pauline Newman.
Late yesterday, the New Civil Liberties Alliance filed a brief in Newman v. Moore, et al., urging the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to deny Defendants’ motion to dismiss the Hon. Pauline Newman’s complaint and to grant a preliminary injunction halting her ongoing suspension. Last month, the Judicial Council of the Federal Circuit unlawfully suspended the veteran circuit judge from hearing new cases for at least a year, after ordering her indefinite suspension several months earlier without due process.
Judge Newman’s indefinite removal from the bench is unprecedented in American judicial history. Throughout the process, the Judicial Council has changed the rationale for its actions and even altered the allegations leveled against her, all to accomplish a predetermined outcome. In March 2023, the Judicial Council indefinitely suspended Judge Newman from hearing new cases before any formal investigation began. In violation of basic and fundamental due process requirements, Chief Judge Moore and the Judicial Council refused to transfer the investigation to another circuit court of appeals, despite the fact that all members of the Judicial Council are fact witnesses to the events at the heart of the dispute. Three former Chief Judges (two from the Federal Circuit itself, and one from the Fifth Circuit) have publicly challenged the Judicial Council’s behavior.
The Judicial Council’s factually baseless and procedurally defective suspension of Judge Newman deprives her of the constitutional right and obligation to continue in office, and it violates the procedural due process protections built into the very statute and rules the Judicial Council is enforcing. The September order exceeds sanctions imposed on judges who committed serious misconduct and improprieties. The Council’s actions, which appear designed to accomplish a preordained result, have left Judge Newman with no remaining cases to hear, irreparably harming her and depriving the country of her decades of valuable judicial experience and insight.
Whatever is going on at the Federal Circuit, it smells.