Supreme Court Declines to Revisit Case Challenging Suspension of 98-Year-Old Federal Appeals Judge

The U.S. Supreme Court on June 15 declined to take up a bid by a 98-year-old federal judge to be reinstated after the judge’s ongoing suspension from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, according to the Supreme Court action described in a newly published report. The order was issued without an accompanying signed opinion.

The petition sought Supreme Court review of the suspension and reinstatement request, and the Court’s action took the form of an unsigned order, the report said. The Supreme Court did not include any dissenting votes or written dissents with the order, according to the account.

The dispute centers on whether the judge could continue to hold the role following the suspension, and the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case leaves the suspension in place while the broader matter proceeds without the Court’s intervention. Because the Court declined review, the lower-court and administrative outcomes described in the underlying proceedings remain operative, subject to any future procedural moves available to the parties.

The practical effect of a denial to review at the Supreme Court level is that the judge’s status is not changed by the nation’s highest court in the immediate term. Until the suspension is lifted through the mechanisms governing judicial discipline and judicial availability, the judge’s participation in cases at the appellate level described in the report would remain constrained.

The Supreme Court’s June 15 order also underscores the narrow gatekeeping function the Court performs when it declines to grant review. When the Court issues an unsigned order without dissents, the decision typically does not provide new legal reasoning for the parties or lower courts, leaving the existing framework and prior rulings to control the case’s posture. Further developments would depend on what additional steps, if any, the parties pursue in the lower courts or through related judicial-discipline processes.