Pauline Newman
Pauline Newman | |
|---|---|
| Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit | |
| Assumed office February 28, 1984 Suspended: September 20, 2023 – present | |
| Appointed by | Ronald Reagan |
| Preceded by | Philip Nichols Jr. |
| Personal details | |
| Born | June 20, 1927 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Education | Vassar College (AB) Columbia University (MA) Yale University (PhD) New York University (LLB) |
Pauline Newman (born June 20, 1927) is an American lawyer and jurist formally serving as a U.S. Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. As of 2025, she is the longest-serving active federal judge, although she was suspended from her duties in September 2023 due to concerns about her productivity and cognitive ability, which she disputes.
Ranking among the most distinguished federal judges, she has been called "the heroine of the patent system", "the Federal Circuit's most prolific dissenter", and "the greatest ally to inventors with respect to [calling out] the ignorance of the CAFC, district courts, and at times even the Supreme Court". Chief Judge Kimberly A. Moore commented of Newman that "many of her dissents have later gone on to become the law—either the en banc law from our court or spoken on high from the Supremes".