Supreme Court won’t hear 98-year-old judge’s bid to end suspension |
Supreme Court won’t hear 98-year-old judge’s bid to end suspension
The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up the oldest active federal judge’s bid to end her suspension, which her colleagues issued after she refused their demands for mental fitness testing.
Pauline Newman, who turns 99 on Saturday and rejects the notion she is unfit to serve, sued her fellow judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit after they indefinitely prevented her from taking on new cases.
Newman contends it’s unconstitutional. The case has emerged as one of the most prominent battles concerning age on the judiciary, in an era when questions about elected officials’ mental fitness are looming large in Washington.
“This petition presents questions concerning crucial constitutional and statutory aspects of lifetime tenure and judicial independence, especially the availability of judicial review for intra-branch infringements on judicial service,” Newman’s lawyers wrote in court filings.
They urged the justices to reverse a lower court that found it had no........