Judge Newman: ‘I Cannot Understand Why My Colleagues Have Decided to Destroy Me’

Source: NCLA video

The New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), which is representing Judge Pauline Newman in her case against U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) Chief Judge Moore and the Special Committee of the Judicial Council that is investigating Newman, today released a forensic psychologist’s report on Newman’s mental fitness and a video detailing the alleged unjust treatment Newman has received.

The press release and report come days after the three-judge panel that comprises the Special Committee told the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that the federal judiciary was meant to police itself, and that Newman’s claim that the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act of 1980 is unconstitutional should be dismissed.

The Special Committee has previously charged that Newman is physically and mentally unfit to continue serving on the court, and is now investigating her for misconduct due to her refusal to submit to medical examinations performed by the Committee’s choice of medical professionals. In August, the Committee found Newman’s actions to constitute “serious misconduct” that has “[t]hwarted the process Congress created for determining whether a life-tenured judge suffers from a disability” and recommend as a sanction suspending her from taking on case assignments for one year, or until she ceases her misconduct.

But the report released today detailed the findings of Dr. Regina M. Carney, a full-time forensic psychologist at Miami Veteran’s Administration Medical Center, and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Miami’s Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, who characterized Newman as “a fluent, engaging, strong-willed, highly accomplished and unusually cognitively intact 96-year-old woman.”

Dr. Carney conducted a three-hour medical evaluation of Newman on August 25 and determined that she “demonstrated no substantial emotional, medical, or psychiatric disability that would interfere with continuation of her longstanding duties as a Judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals.”

As part of the evaluation, Dr. Carney performed the “Modified Mini-Mental State Examination,” on which Newman scored 98/100 overall. She missed two points for generating only eight of a possible 10 four-legged animals in 20 seconds.

According to the NCLA press release, Judge Newman has now voluntarily submitted to two independent mental health exams by two experts: George Washington University neurologist Dr. Ted Rothstein and Dr. Carney. “She was tested. She passed. Twice,” said the NCLA.

Dr. Rothstein in June concluded that Judge Newman’s cognitive function is “sufficient to continue her participation in her court’s proceedings.”

Newman’s counsel at the NCLA, Greg Dolin, said this latest report from a second medical provider bolsters the view of Newman’s supporters, which include her former colleagues, retired CAFC Chief Judges Paul Michel and Randall Rader.

“These exams were not necessary in the first place, but they clearly show that the investigation against Judge Newman is baseless and that it is time to bring it to a close,” Dolin said. “Enough is enough.”

Newman: I’m Not Walking Away

The NCLA also released a candid video featuring Judge Newman in which she said her colleagues’ behavior has been “threatening.”

“The verbal threats were concealed, but that I was to be made miserable and intimidated was not concealed, because that was exactly what was happening,” Newman said.

Newman recalled in the video that Chief Judge Moore initially asked her to take senior status, but that she “thought I should not set a pattern of judicial colleagues being able to bully and force out a colleague they don’t like who writes dissents, and so I refused.”

She added that none of the health incidents detailed by the Committee, which include a heart attack and a fainting spell, ever happened.

“I cannot understand why my colleagues have decided at this stage of my life to destroy me; to destroy my reputation; to remove my opportunity to decide cases,” she added.

Dolin said in the video that “we’re defending the very principle of judicial independence.”

NCLA President and General Counsel Mark Chenoweth explained that the main goal of the district court lawsuit is to put Judge Newman back on the bench, because, under the statute, judges are supposed to remain on the bench for the duration of any investigation. “They have not done that here, which is a violation of the law,” Chenoweth said.

For her part, Newman said the fight has become about something bigger than just her own situation. She explained:

“I feel an obligation not to walk away from this…. If it’s allowed, the next time it comes up, the next judge that comes up who is maybe disliked by her colleagues will have to go through what I’m going through. I don’t see how I can allow this action to stand without debate.”

Judge Pauline Newman will be speaking on Monday, September 18, at IPWatchdog’s upcoming IPWatchdog LIVE Conference.