Suspended 96-Year-Old Judge Loses Appeal to Judicial Panel (1)

Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman’s challenge to her suspension was denied by the federal courts’ administrative body tasked with reviewing misconduct and disability complaints against judges.

Newman, who is 96 and the oldest active federal judge, was sidelined by her colleagues in September after refusing to sit for neurological testing. The probe and Newman’s defiant public response has roiled the normally staid US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which has exclusive appellate jurisdiction over the nation’s patent cases.

Newman had appealed her suspension to the Judicial Conference of the US’s Committee on Judicial Conduct and Disability, a group ...