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Abstract
Under the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act of 1980 (JCDA), it falls to federal judges in each circuit to investigate and redress complaints about their col- leagues’ behavior. A controversial provision of the Act authorizes the temporary suspension of misbehaving judges from new case assignments. Judges suspended under the Act—most recently, Judge Pauline Newman in the Federal Circuit—have argued that this amounts to effectively removing them from office without impeachment, violating constitutional protections of judicial tenure and independence. No court has invalidated a suspension on this basis so far. Yet courts have reserved the question taken up here, namely whether a long-term suspension could, by its practical effect, cross the line into removal.
Recommended Citation
Brake, Jack
(2024)
"Effective Removal of Article III Judges: Case Suspensions and the Constitutional Limits of Judicial Self-Policing,"
University of Chicago Law Review: Vol. 91:
Iss.
4, Article 3.
Available at:
https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclrev/vol91/iss4/3