6 Video Clips Of Judge Pauline Newman
Judge Newman wants the legal world to see as well as hear her in action.
Welcome to Original Jurisdiction, the latest legal publication by me, David Lat. You can learn more about Original Jurisdiction by reading its About page, and you can email me at davidlat@substack.com. This is a reader-supported publication; you can subscribe by clicking here. Thanks!
As regular listeners of the Original Jurisdiction podcast are well aware, it’s an audio rather than video experience. Although I conduct interviews over Zoom to facilitate conversation—for example, to help me and my guest avoid talking over each other—I’ve never posted the video.
This week, however, I’m doing something different. My latest guest, Judge Pauline Newman of the Federal Circuit, is 96 years old, and there’s an effort afoot to remove her from the bench based on alleged “cognitive decline” and “significant mental problems”—which she vociferously denies.
I believe that listening to our podcast conversation will convince many observers that Judge Newman is completely lucid, but the judge felt that video would make the case for her cognitive ability and continued vitality even more persuasively. So at her request, I’m posting a half-dozen video clips, highlights from our conversation, so you can see as well as hear Judge Newman for yourself. (You’ll occasionally notice what might seem like little jumps in the video; some of this is from editing, which was minimal, and some is from the Zoom connection.)
Thanks to my audio engineer, Tommy Harron, for producing these clips. And thanks to Judge Newman for both her time and transparency.
On what she feels is her greatest accomplishment:
On the effort to remove her from the bench:
On the allegation that she failed a basic computer training:
On why her longtime colleagues are trying to remove her from the bench:
On how the effort to remove her makes her feel on a personal level:
On why she won’t just step down voluntarily:
And again, in case you missed it, please listen to Wednesday’s podcast episode, from which these clips are taken. Thanks for tuning in!
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Thank you so much for following up on this troubling situation with such grace and incisive questioning. Watching Judge Newman respond to your direct and thoughtful questions with clarity and honesty is quite moving and demonstrates convincingly that she is not the least bit diminished cognitively. On the contrary, she is clearly completely capable of sitting in fair and impartial judgment of anyone who might come before her as a judge. I am someone who values the wisdom of our elders, and this set of videos proves that our elder statespeople deserve our ongoing respect and appreciation.
I just listened to your clips and checked on some news reports from last year dealing with this issue, so I am not well informed. I live in Chicago though and I wouldn't be surprised if the comrade judges here would like to get rid the judge nominated by President Ronald Reagan. She still remembers this country before it became the crazy shithole it is now, and her decisions may be inconvenient. Just spitballing here...