CAFC Committee Closes to Public July 13 Oral Argument on Newman Fitness Probe
A July 13 oral argument related to Judge Pauline Newman's fitness to continue serving on the bench will be closed to the public, a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit special committee ordered this week. In the June 20 order, the committee said that aside from an initial strong presumption of confidentiality in the proceeding, making the hearing public could jeopardize key information.
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Opening the argument to the public "carries a grave risk of precisely the harms the Committee has carefully avoided up to this point -- namely, inadvertent disclosure of both witnesses’ identities and confidential details of witness statements and impairing the investigative process," the order said. It said the oral argument will likely involve discussion of all the affidavits and deposition transcripts relied on by the committee, composed of Judges Kimberly Moore, Sharon Prost and Richard Taranto.
Public discussion of these documents could reveal witness identities or confidential information. Censoring this data in real time would "undermine the usefulness of the argument itself as part of the investigative process, because it would mean that all the participants would not be able to freely discuss the record and instead would have to monitor themselves to avoid inadvertent disclosures," the order said.
The committee's order further clarified the scope of issues for briefing. The committee in June narrowed the scope to whether Newman's refusal to undergo neurological examinations and sit for an interview with the committee amounted to misconduct. In the June 20 order, the judges clarified that Newman's brief due July 5 should focus only on whether her "refusal to comply with the Committee’s orders seeking (i) neurological and neuropsychological testing, (ii) medical records, and (iii) an interview constitutes misconduct."
Moore opened the investigation on Newman in March because of concerns about the judge's ability to effectively do her job and suspicions that Newman is suffering from a disability, restricting the court from fully carrying out its duties (see 2304140022). The probe has been expanded multiple times and most recently saw the Judicial Council of the Federal Circuit vote to exclude Newman from being assigned new cases while the investigation continues (see 2306060053).