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Judiciary

Will the Supreme Court Review Judge Newman's Stealth Impeachment?

The Court should grant cert on the important separation of powers issue raised by her long-running, allegedly "temporary suspension" from case assignments.

Paul Cassell | 6.4.2026 10:25 AM

Judge Newman has been "temporarily" suspended from case assignments in the Federal Circuit by her fellow judges. She has filed a cert petition with the Supreme Court. Her "stealth impeachment" raises significant issues worthy of Supreme Court review.  Since all the briefing on her cert petition is now completed -- and a decision on the petition is imminent -- this post will briefly recap the issues, with the most important briefs linked.

As I've blogged about previously, recall that Judge Newman has challenged her suspension from new case assignments. (Fellow bloggers Josh Blackman and Jonathan Adler have also followed the case closely.) But in the latest ruling, the D.C. Circuit held that the Judicial Council's Reform and Judicial Conduct and Disability Act of 1980 blocks any review of the lawfulness of this suspension.

In March, Judge Newman filed a cert petition presenting the important constitutional question of whether she is entitled to her day in court to challenge the lengthy suspension, which has no end in sight. Her petition begins with this powerful introduction:

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. These questions affect the very independence of Article III courts and potentially affect every member of the federal judiciary and every litigant who appears before them. For three years the Federal Circuit has been operating short-handed because the judges of that court have summarily removed its longest-serving and most storied jurist (its "Great Dissenter") from the bench.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals held that the Judicial........

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