Judge Pauline Newman’s suspension …
The council of Federal Circuit judges on Wednesday unanimously suspended Judge Pauline Newman from hearing new cases, saying that the 96-year-old jurist had failed to cooperate with an investigation into her mental fitness. Newman, who is the oldest active U.S. federal judge, told Reuters that her court’s handling of the investigation could help undermine trust in America’s courts … Last year, the average age of sitting federal judges was 68.5, according to the Federal Judicial Center, the judiciary’s research arm. A new study found that federal appeals court judges are more likely as they get older to write opinions with language that mirrors or outright copies the wording of the briefs submitted by the lawyers arguing cases before them.
U.S. government shutdown …
Former President Donald Trump urged fellow Republicans in Congress to shut down the government to thwart the federal prosecutions against him, although any funding lapse would be unlikely to stop the cases from being pursued … The looming shutdown that some hardline Republicans are cheering for could slow one of their other priorities: the recently launched impeachment inquiry of Democratic President Joe Biden … Many U.S. government services would also be disrupted and hundreds of thousands of federal workers would get furloughed without pay if Congress fails to provide funding for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1. Workers deemed “essential” would remain on the job but without pay. Here are a few ways Congress might avoid a shutdown
Legal fees …
Leading litigator David Boies’ is billing at $2,110 an hour in a class action brought by victims of the late financier Jeffrey Epstein against Deutsche Bank … Lawyers at Bleichmar Fonti & Auld; Fields Kupka & Shukurov; McCarter & English; and Clark Hill want a judge to approve $229 million in fees, or $10,690 an hour, for their work on a case that forced Tesla directors to return hundreds of millions in compensation … The DOJ and the Navy said attorneys representing people hurt by contaminated water at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune cannot receive more than 25% of any client’s recovery as fees.
