It took over three years, but the judicial conduct complaint against Judge Pauline Newman has finally left the building.
Fix the Court reports that the complaint Federal Circuit Chief Judge Kimberly Moore identified against her now-99-year-old colleague back in March 2023 has decamped to the warmer climes of the Judicial Council of the Eleventh Circuit. For anyone just joining the stealth impeachment saga, Moore initiated the complaint against Judge Newman, then Moore’s own council adjudicated it, and that council barred Judge Newman from hearing cases in 2023, again in 2024, and again in 2025. Judges aren’t supposed to be able to impeach their peers, but the statute lets them stop assigning cases “on a temporary basis for a time certain.”
And if you’re creative enough, you can keep stacking “temporary” suspensions for a very long time.
That sounds a bit cynical. Surely the Federal Circuit would say it genuinely respects Judge Newman’s active status, and will start assigning her cases again as soon as this is cleared up! It’s not like the court went out and officially commissioned a self-congratulatory cartoon of all of its members while refusing to include Newman. There was a lot of reason to doubt the suspension as a good faith “temporary” measure, but whatever benefit of the doubt the court could muster went out the window when it put out a video scrubbing a judge from the official court like Stalin airbrushing allies out of pictures.
Whatever the merits of the Federal Circuit’s effort to sideline their longest-serving colleague, it’s finally no longer being decided by the same court that brought the complaint. “Judges shouldn’t be judging the behavior of fellow judges they work down the hall from,” Fix the Court’s Gabe Roth said. “It’s a clear conflict.”
Indeed, it’s a conflict that most courts flag right off the bat. Courts can ask the Chief Justice to ship a complaint to another circuit under “exceptional circumstances,” and by Fix the Court’s count it’s happened more than two dozen times. In fact, Newman’s case is “the only complaint against a circuit judge that survived initial review in history where the chief judge didn’t request a transfer from the Chief Justice.”
Until now. It’s unclear what changed Chief Judge Moore’s mind.
The Eleventh Circuit has had a busy docket of judicial complaints. This is where Judge Eleanor Ross had sex in chambers with a senior police official and then lied to investigators about it. That earned her a private reprimand and the slap-on-the-wrist of never getting to serve as chief judge. The reprimand was even carefully drafted to conceal her identity, a courtesy to the judge that lasted right up until anyone with the opinion and a ChatGPT account could crack the code. She also had to apologize to her former clerks, and when her council-ordered apology letters turned out to be three sentences of nothing, Chief Judge William Pryor decided no harm, no foul.
It’s also the court where Judge Roy Altman taped right-wing media hits from chambers calling the keffiyeh a “terror scarf,” raising at least the appearance of religious bias. Pryor tossed that complaint without bothering to appoint a committee, finding the allegations “lack any factual foundation or are conclusively refuted by objective evidence.” As Professor Steven Lubet wrote at the time, Pryor’s “failure to initiate an investigation set a regrettable example for the entire federal judiciary.”
Having gone soft on an Obama appointee and a Trump appointee, the Eleventh Circuit now gets a crack at a case about one of the few remaining Reagan appointees on the bench.
Judge Newman didn’t have an affair in her office or try to become a podcast star by casting aspersions on Arab garb. Her only sin is staying on the court after her colleagues wanted her off. Technically, the temporary suspension cites her refusal to submit to a neurological screening, casually disregarding the fact that Ted Rothstein — a neurological expert who practices and teaches at the George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences — examined Judge Newman and gave her a clean bill of health.
What good are goal posts if they can’t be moved?
But it’s much better to move the complaint than the goal posts. The transfer actually happened back in August. It’s coming out now because Judge Newman made a pitch for greater transparency in her case — asking for permission to disclose orders and submissions. Pryor granted the request, “to the extent that the existence of this proceeding is disclosed “to maintain public confidence in the judiciary’s ability to redress misconduct or disability.”
Should the federal judiciary have 99-year-old judges? Maybe not. But until we impose an evenly applied term limit on active duty judges, that’s not up to anyone but the judge in question or Congress exercising its formal impeachment power.
In the meantime, Rep. Scott Fitzgerald introduced a bill that would make a transfer request like this one mandatory going forward. The bill would also impose limits on daisy chaining “temporary” suspensions together. If Fitzgerald’s reforms pass, a court could only suspend a fellow judge for two years before the matter is referred to the House to take action. If the House doesn’t agree to impeach, the judge gets to return to their lawful duties.
But that’s all for the hypothetical future. For now, Judge Newman’s case will be heard by judges who didn’t have a hand in bringing the complaint itself. It’s a belated step in the right direction.
Earlier: New Bill Might Finally Put A Stop To Judge Pauline Newman’s Stealth Impeachment
Chief Judge Pryor Tosses Judge Altman ‘Terror Scarf’ Complaint, Showing Off Bipartisan Leniency Toward Misconduct Claims
Federal Judge Had Sex In Chambers Bringing New Meaning To Gavel Bang
Judiciary Tried To Hide ‘Sex In Chambers’ Judge’s Name. It Left A Roadmap To Identify Eleanor Ross Instead.
Chief Judge Pryor Decides No Harm, No Foul Over Judge Ross’s Flimsy Apologies
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.
The post Judge Pauline Newman’s Shadow Impeachment Finally Transferred To An Independent Court appeared first on Above the Law.
It took over three years, but the judicial conduct complaint against Judge Pauline Newman has finally left the building.
Fix the Court reports that the complaint Federal Circuit Chief Judge Kimberly Moore identified against her now-99-year-old colleague back in March 2023 has decamped to the warmer climes of the Judicial Council of the Eleventh Circuit. For anyone just joining the stealth impeachment saga, Moore initiated the complaint against Judge Newman, then Moore’s own council adjudicated it, and that council barred Judge Newman from hearing cases in 2023, again in 2024, and again in 2025. Judges aren’t supposed to be able to impeach their peers, but the statute lets them stop assigning cases “on a temporary basis for a time certain.”
And if you’re creative enough, you can keep stacking “temporary” suspensions for a very long time.
That sounds a bit cynical. Surely the Federal Circuit would say it genuinely respects Judge Newman’s active status, and will start assigning her cases again as soon as this is cleared up! It’s not like the court went out and officially commissioned a self-congratulatory cartoon of all of its members while refusing to include Newman. There was a lot of reason to doubt the suspension as a good faith “temporary” measure, but whatever benefit of the doubt the court could muster went out the window when it put out a video scrubbing a judge from the official court like Stalin airbrushing allies out of pictures.
Whatever the merits of the Federal Circuit’s effort to sideline their longest-serving colleague, it’s finally no longer being decided by the same court that brought the complaint. “Judges shouldn’t be judging the behavior of fellow judges they work down the hall from,” Fix the Court’s Gabe Roth said. “It’s a clear conflict.”
Indeed, it’s a conflict that most courts flag right off the bat. Courts can ask the Chief Justice to ship a complaint to another circuit under “exceptional circumstances,” and by Fix the Court’s count it’s happened more than two dozen times. In fact, Newman’s case is “the only complaint against a circuit judge that survived initial review in history where the chief judge didn’t request a transfer from the Chief Justice.”
Until now. It’s unclear what changed Chief Judge Moore’s mind.
The Eleventh Circuit has had a busy docket of judicial complaints. This is where Judge Eleanor Ross had sex in chambers with a senior police official and then lied to investigators about it. That earned her a private reprimand and the slap-on-the-wrist of never getting to serve as chief judge. The reprimand was even carefully drafted to conceal her identity, a courtesy to the judge that lasted right up until anyone with the opinion and a ChatGPT account could crack the code. She also had to apologize to her former clerks, and when her council-ordered apology letters turned out to be three sentences of nothing, Chief Judge William Pryor decided no harm, no foul.
It’s also the court where Judge Roy Altman taped right-wing media hits from chambers calling the keffiyeh a “terror scarf,” raising at least the appearance of religious bias. Pryor tossed that complaint without bothering to appoint a committee, finding the allegations “lack any factual foundation or are conclusively refuted by objective evidence.” As Professor Steven Lubet wrote at the time, Pryor’s “failure to initiate an investigation set a regrettable example for the entire federal judiciary.”
Having gone soft on an Obama appointee and a Trump appointee, the Eleventh Circuit now gets a crack at a case about one of the few remaining Reagan appointees on the bench.
Judge Newman didn’t have an affair in her office or try to become a podcast star by casting aspersions on Arab garb. Her only sin is staying on the court after her colleagues wanted her off. Technically, the temporary suspension cites her refusal to submit to a neurological screening, casually disregarding the fact that Ted Rothstein — a neurological expert who practices and teaches at the George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences — examined Judge Newman and gave her a clean bill of health.
What good are goal posts if they can’t be moved?
But it’s much better to move the complaint than the goal posts. The transfer actually happened back in August. It’s coming out now because Judge Newman made a pitch for greater transparency in her case — asking for permission to disclose orders and submissions. Pryor granted the request, “to the extent that the existence of this proceeding is disclosed “to maintain public confidence in the judiciary’s ability to redress misconduct or disability.”
Should the federal judiciary have 99-year-old judges? Maybe not. But until we impose an evenly applied term limit on active duty judges, that’s not up to anyone but the judge in question or Congress exercising its formal impeachment power.
In the meantime, Rep. Scott Fitzgerald introduced a bill that would make a transfer request like this one mandatory going forward. The bill would also impose limits on daisy chaining “temporary” suspensions together. If Fitzgerald’s reforms pass, a court could only suspend a fellow judge for two years before the matter is referred to the House to take action. If the House doesn’t agree to impeach, the judge gets to return to their lawful duties.
But that’s all for the hypothetical future. For now, Judge Newman’s case will be heard by judges who didn’t have a hand in bringing the complaint itself. It’s a belated step in the right direction.
Earlier: New Bill Might Finally Put A Stop To Judge Pauline Newman’s Stealth Impeachment
Chief Judge Pryor Tosses Judge Altman ‘Terror Scarf’ Complaint, Showing Off Bipartisan Leniency Toward Misconduct Claims
Federal Judge Had Sex In Chambers Bringing New Meaning To Gavel Bang
Judiciary Tried To Hide ‘Sex In Chambers’ Judge’s Name. It Left A Roadmap To Identify Eleanor Ross Instead.
Chief Judge Pryor Decides No Harm, No Foul Over Judge Ross’s Flimsy Apologies
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.
