{"id":164511,"date":"2026-10-07T15:09:26","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T23:09:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/10\/07\/judge-pauline-newmans-shadow-impeachment-finally-transferred-to-an-independent-court\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T15:09:26","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T23:09:26","slug":"judge-pauline-newmans-shadow-impeachment-finally-transferred-to-an-independent-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/10\/07\/judge-pauline-newmans-shadow-impeachment-finally-transferred-to-an-independent-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge Pauline Newman\u2019s Shadow Impeachment Finally Transferred To An Independent Court"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
(Photo by Bill O\u2019Leary\/The Washington Post via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It took over three years, but the judicial conduct complaint against Judge Pauline Newman has finally left the building.<\/p>\n

Fix the Court reports<\/a> 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<\/a>, Moore initiated the complaint against Judge Newman, then Moore\u2019s own council adjudicated it, and that council barred Judge Newman from hearing cases in 2023, again in 2024, and again in 2025. Judges aren\u2019t supposed to be able to impeach their peers, but the statute lets them stop assigning cases \u201con a temporary basis for a time certain.\u201d <\/p>\n

And if you\u2019re creative enough, you can keep stacking \u201ctemporary\u201d suspensions for a very long time.<\/p>\n

That sounds a bit cynical. Surely the Federal Circuit would say it genuinely respects Judge Newman\u2019s active status, and will start assigning her cases again as soon as this is cleared up! It\u2019s not like the court went out and officially commissioned a self-congratulatory cartoon of all of its members while refusing to include Newman<\/a>. There was a lot of reason to doubt the suspension as a good faith \u201ctemporary\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

Whatever the merits of the Federal Circuit\u2019s effort to sideline their longest-serving colleague, it\u2019s finally no longer being decided by the same court that brought the complaint. \u201cJudges shouldn\u2019t be judging the behavior of fellow judges they work down the hall from,\u201d Fix the Court\u2019s Gabe Roth said. \u201cIt\u2019s a clear conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, it\u2019s a conflict that most courts flag right off the bat. Courts can ask the Chief Justice to ship a complaint to another circuit under \u201cexceptional circumstances,\u201d and by Fix the Court\u2019s count it\u2019s happened more than two dozen times<\/a>. In fact, Newman\u2019s case is \u201cthe only complaint against a circuit judge that survived initial review in history where the chief judge didn\u2019t request a transfer from the Chief Justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Until now. It\u2019s unclear what changed Chief Judge Moore\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n

The Eleventh Circuit has had a busy docket of judicial complaints. This is where Judge Eleanor Ross had sex in chambers<\/a> 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>, 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<\/a>. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s also the court where Judge Roy Altman taped right-wing media hits from chambers calling the keffiyeh a \u201cterror scarf,\u201d<\/a> raising at least the appearance of religious bias. Pryor tossed that complaint<\/a> without bothering to appoint a committee, finding the allegations \u201clack any factual foundation or are conclusively refuted by objective evidence.\u201d As Professor Steven Lubet wrote at the time<\/a>, Pryor\u2019s \u201cfailure to initiate an investigation set a regrettable example for the entire federal judiciary.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Judge Newman didn\u2019t 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 \u2014 a neurological expert who practices and teaches at the George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences \u2014 examined Judge Newman and gave her a clean bill of health<\/a>. <\/p>\n

What good are goal posts if they can\u2019t be moved?<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s much better to move the complaint than the goal posts. The transfer actually happened back in August. It\u2019s coming out now because Judge Newman made a pitch for greater transparency in her case \u2014 asking for permission to disclose orders and submissions. Pryor granted the request<\/a>, \u201cto the extent that the existence of this proceeding is disclosed \u201cto maintain public confidence in the judiciary\u2019s ability to redress misconduct or disability.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s not up to anyone but the judge in question or Congress exercising its formal impeachment power. <\/p>\n

In the meantime, Rep. Scott Fitzgerald introduced a bill<\/a> that would make a transfer request like this one mandatory going forward. The bill would also impose limits on daisy chaining \u201ctemporary\u201d suspensions together. If Fitzgerald\u2019s reforms pass, a court could only suspend a fellow judge for two years<\/a> before the matter is referred to the House to take action. If the House doesn\u2019t agree to impeach, the judge gets to return to their lawful duties.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s all for the hypothetical future. For now, Judge Newman\u2019s case will be heard by judges who didn\u2019t have a hand in bringing the complaint itself. It\u2019s a belated step in the right direction.<\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: New Bill Might Finally Put A Stop To Judge Pauline Newman\u2019s Stealth Impeachment<\/a>
Chief Judge Pryor Tosses Judge Altman \u2018Terror Scarf\u2019 Complaint, Showing Off Bipartisan Leniency Toward Misconduct Claims<\/a>
Federal Judge Had Sex In Chambers Bringing New Meaning To Gavel Bang<\/a>
Judiciary Tried To Hide \u2018Sex In Chambers\u2019 Judge\u2019s Name. It Left A Roadmap To Identify Eleanor Ross Instead.<\/a>
Chief Judge Pryor Decides No Harm, No Foul Over Judge Ross\u2019s Flimsy Apologies<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Judge Pauline Newman\u2019s Shadow Impeachment Finally Transferred To An Independent Court<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
(Photo by Bill O\u2019Leary\/The Washington Post via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It took over three years, but the judicial conduct complaint against Judge Pauline Newman has finally left the building.<\/p>\n

Fix the Court reports<\/a> 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<\/a>, Moore initiated the complaint against Judge Newman, then Moore\u2019s own council adjudicated it, and that council barred Judge Newman from hearing cases in 2023, again in 2024, and again in 2025. Judges aren\u2019t supposed to be able to impeach their peers, but the statute lets them stop assigning cases \u201con a temporary basis for a time certain.\u201d <\/p>\n

And if you\u2019re creative enough, you can keep stacking \u201ctemporary\u201d suspensions for a very long time.<\/p>\n

That sounds a bit cynical. Surely the Federal Circuit would say it genuinely respects Judge Newman\u2019s active status, and will start assigning her cases again as soon as this is cleared up! It\u2019s not like the court went out and officially commissioned a self-congratulatory cartoon of all of its members while refusing to include Newman<\/a>. There was a lot of reason to doubt the suspension as a good faith \u201ctemporary\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

Whatever the merits of the Federal Circuit\u2019s effort to sideline their longest-serving colleague, it\u2019s finally no longer being decided by the same court that brought the complaint. \u201cJudges shouldn\u2019t be judging the behavior of fellow judges they work down the hall from,\u201d Fix the Court\u2019s Gabe Roth said. \u201cIt\u2019s a clear conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, it\u2019s a conflict that most courts flag right off the bat. Courts can ask the Chief Justice to ship a complaint to another circuit under \u201cexceptional circumstances,\u201d and by Fix the Court\u2019s count it\u2019s happened more than two dozen times<\/a>. In fact, Newman\u2019s case is \u201cthe only complaint against a circuit judge that survived initial review in history where the chief judge didn\u2019t request a transfer from the Chief Justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Until now. It\u2019s unclear what changed Chief Judge Moore\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n

The Eleventh Circuit has had a busy docket of judicial complaints. This is where Judge Eleanor Ross had sex in chambers<\/a> 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>, 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<\/a>. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s also the court where Judge Roy Altman taped right-wing media hits from chambers calling the keffiyeh a \u201cterror scarf,\u201d<\/a> raising at least the appearance of religious bias. Pryor tossed that complaint<\/a> without bothering to appoint a committee, finding the allegations \u201clack any factual foundation or are conclusively refuted by objective evidence.\u201d As Professor Steven Lubet wrote at the time<\/a>, Pryor\u2019s \u201cfailure to initiate an investigation set a regrettable example for the entire federal judiciary.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Judge Newman didn\u2019t 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 \u2014 a neurological expert who practices and teaches at the George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences \u2014 examined Judge Newman and gave her a clean bill of health<\/a>. <\/p>\n

What good are goal posts if they can\u2019t be moved?<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s much better to move the complaint than the goal posts. The transfer actually happened back in August. It\u2019s coming out now because Judge Newman made a pitch for greater transparency in her case \u2014 asking for permission to disclose orders and submissions. Pryor granted the request<\/a>, \u201cto the extent that the existence of this proceeding is disclosed \u201cto maintain public confidence in the judiciary\u2019s ability to redress misconduct or disability.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s not up to anyone but the judge in question or Congress exercising its formal impeachment power. <\/p>\n

In the meantime, Rep. Scott Fitzgerald introduced a bill<\/a> that would make a transfer request like this one mandatory going forward. The bill would also impose limits on daisy chaining \u201ctemporary\u201d suspensions together. If Fitzgerald\u2019s reforms pass, a court could only suspend a fellow judge for two years<\/a> before the matter is referred to the House to take action. If the House doesn\u2019t agree to impeach, the judge gets to return to their lawful duties.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s all for the hypothetical future. For now, Judge Newman\u2019s case will be heard by judges who didn\u2019t have a hand in bringing the complaint itself. It\u2019s a belated step in the right direction.<\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: New Bill Might Finally Put A Stop To Judge Pauline Newman\u2019s Stealth Impeachment<\/a>
Chief Judge Pryor Tosses Judge Altman \u2018Terror Scarf\u2019 Complaint, Showing Off Bipartisan Leniency Toward Misconduct Claims<\/a>
Federal Judge Had Sex In Chambers Bringing New Meaning To Gavel Bang<\/a>
Judiciary Tried To Hide \u2018Sex In Chambers\u2019 Judge\u2019s Name. It Left A Roadmap To Identify Eleanor Ross Instead.<\/a>
Chief Judge Pryor Decides No Harm, No Foul Over Judge Ross\u2019s Flimsy Apologies<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Photo by Bill O\u2019Leary\/The Washington Post via Getty Images) 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-164511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164511\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}