Washington — The Supreme Court on Monday turned away Judge Pauline Newman’s bid to return to service on a federal appeals court after she was suspended from hearing cases due to concerns about her fitness to serve.

Newman, who is 98, has served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit since 1984. Established in 1982, the Federal Circuit hears appeals in cases involving international trade, patents, trademarks, veterans’ benefits and money claims against the U.S. government. 

Across her more than four decades on the Federal Circuit, Newman has authored more than 300 dissenting opinions, earning her the nickname the “Great Dissenter.”

But three years ago, the Judicial Council for the Federal Circuit, which consists of the circuit judges in active service, suspended Newman from hearing cases. The court’s chief judge, Kimberly Moore, also told Newman she could either retire or consider senior status, a form of semi-retirement in which judges take on a lighter caseload. 

After Newman refused either option, Moore entered an order that identified a judicial complaint against the then-96-year-old judge and found “there is probable cause to believe that Judge Newman’s health has left her without the capacity to perform the work of an active judge and that her habitual delays are prejudicial to the efficient administration of justice.”

Moore’s filing referenced health issues Newman suffered in the summer of 2021 and a fainting episode in 2022, and said judges and staff on the Federal Circuit had expressed concerns about Newman’s inability to keep up with her workload.

Moore and a special committee of two Federal Circuit judges then investigated Newman’s fitness to continue serving and ordered the judge to submit to neurological and neuropsychological testing. The panel also requested she turn over medical records and participate in an interview.

While Newman provided expert reports from two doctors, the committee recommended Newman “not be permitted to hear any cases” for one year, subject to renewal. The Judicial Council approved the recommendation in September 2023.

Newman asked a panel of the Judicial Conference of the United States, the policy-making body for the federal courts, to review her suspension, though it rejected her arguments in February 2024.

The Federal Circuit then renewed Newman’s suspension for another year in September 2024, and again in August 2025.

Amid her suspension, Newman filed a lawsuit against Moore and her colleagues on the Federal Circuit and sought to prevent the Judicial Council from taking action against her in the future. The judge argued that the panel violated the Constitution by effectively removing her from office despite life tenure protections and denied her due process.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ultimately ruled against Newman, finding that the Disability Act prevents litigants from bringing certain constitutional challenges to a judicial council’s authority.

In urging the Supreme Court to take up her case, Newman’s lawyers claimed that Moore was circumventing the Constitution’s protections for federal judges in an attempt to sideline a judge she doesn’t want to serve with. They also accused the Federal Circuit judges of trying to silence a colleague who often dissents.

“This administrative removal of a judge who is famous for dissenting from her colleagues, by those same colleagues, with judicial refusal to review the merits of the action, undermines the judicial independence that is a vital foundation of our constitutional design,” Newman’s lawyers wrote in a filing. “Every judge who gets crosswise with her chief judge or her colleagues must now worry whether similar tactics could be used to remove them.”

The Justice Department, which represented Moore and the other judges, urged the Supreme Court to turn away Newman’s case.

The New Civil Liberties Alliance, which is representing Newman, said it is disappointed in the high court’s denial of the appeal, but said it would continue to push for her reinstatement.

“It is a dark day for the independence of the federal judiciary,” Mark Chenoweth, the group’s president, said in a statement. “The cert denial in this case means that Judge Newman’s due process and other complaints about the way Chief Judge Moore and the Federal Circuit Judicial Council have treated her never have and never will receive a merits decision from an Article III court. That is utterly inexcusable and truly inexplicable.”

Netflix hosts a large library of award-winning movies, but finding the right one for your weekend streaming can sometimes feel harder than it should. While the latest trending titles may be all over your Netflix home, there are plenty of acclaimed films that are worth searching for.

This month, with Netflix’s summer roster heating up, new releases have left viewers spoiled for choice. June’s streaming schedule has also brought in some amazing older films that you should add to your watchlist. Here are three award-winning films streaming on Netflix U.S. this week.

Poor Things

A second chance at life

Poor Things is definitely one of the most eccentric films I’ve watched, but the premise was enough to keep me invested in the mind-bending thriller. Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos (Bugonia), the sci-fi film follows Bella Baxter (Emma Stone), a young woman who is brought back to life by Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) after her death. However, Bella returns with her unborn child’s brain, and she has to learn about the world in an adult body.

As she rapidly develops intellectually and emotionally, Bella becomes very curious about everything around her. Refusing to live under the protection of her creator, she leaves home with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a morally questionable lawyer. Together, the couple embarks on an adventure that takes them across Europe. Bella then experiences life and society for the first time and discovers herself along the way.

Poor Things was a decorated film, winning four Academy Awards, including Best Actress for Stone, and taking home two Golden Globe Awards: Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and Best Actress for Stone.

Another Round

Four more shots, please

Want to dip your toes in something outside of Hollywood? Another Round is a perfect watch for fans of Hannibal actor Mads Mikkelsen. The Danish comedy follows four high school teachers who feel stuck in a loop of monotony and existential boredom. Inspired by a theory that humans function better with a small amount of alcohol constantly in their system, the group decides to conduct a scientific experiment on themselves: to maintain a steady level of intoxication throughout the workday at a 0.05% blood alcohol level (BAC) and see what happens.

At first, the results seem positive, with their confidence and creativity improving, and life feeling more exciting. As the experiment escalates, the four teachers slowly increase the BAC, and things start going sideways, affecting their careers and families.

Mikkelsen delivers one of the best performances of his career (which says a lot given his filmography), with a strong supporting cast and excellent writing that keeps you invested in the train wreck that slowly unfolds. Another Round won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film and was also nominated for Best Director (Thomas Vinterberg).

The Theory of Everything

The story behind a brilliant mind

A biographical film that stays with you for a long time after you watch it, The Theory of Everythingis a masterpiece in filmmaking and acting. It tells the true story of late physicist Stephen Hawking (played by Eddie Redmayne), from his education to his later research. The film begins during Hawking’s years at Cambridge University, where his intellect shines bright. Here, he meets literature student Jane Wilde (Felicity Jones), and the two fall in love. Their future seems bright until Hawking receives a devastating diagnosis of motor neuron disease (ALS), with doctors predicting he has only a few years to live.

Rather than giving in to the debilitating illness, Hawking continues pursuing groundbreaking research, stunning his peers and the world with his resilience. The Theory of Everything shows all that unfolds in Hawking’s notable journey, from his scientific achievements to the complexities of his relationship with Jane as the reality of the illness sets in.

For his stellar performance, Redmayne won the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, and BAFTA Award for Best Actor.

The next time you’re stuck scrolling through Netflix, check out the platform’s collections (from award winners and nominees to seasonal ones) so you can escape the loop of stale recommendations. You can also filter and search better using Netflix’s secret codes, a great tool in your discovery arsenal.

Yeah, that’ll get you canned pretty quick.

Of course these days Eric Church has a pretty sweet gig, making music that he loves, playing for crowds of adoring fans, and selling out arenas and amphitheaters around the country. But well before he was the country music legend that he is today, Church found himself in a situation that most of us find ourselves in at some point in life… working a terrible job just to scrape up some money.

And for Eric, that meant selling knives for a home shopping network. To be fair, it doesn’t sound all that bad, but according to Eric, he wasn’t very good at it, and there was one reason why… he actually encouraged callers to NOT but knives… why? Well, because they had no business owning one.

The Early Years

After graduating from Appalachian State, Church moved to Nashville to try to catch his big break in the music business. Of course, you don’t just immediately move to Nashville and become a country star overnight… well, these days some bozo can blow up on TikTok and get a record deal overnight… but generally, it took a lot of work and sometimes, a lot of luck. And Eric had to work some pretty terrible side jobs to support himself while he was grinding it out in his music career.

And according to Church, the worst was working the overnight shift at the shop at home network.

“I’ve had a lot of awful jobs…my worst one was when I first came to Nashville. I got a job at the Shop at Home Network. I worked midnight, graveyard, midnight to eight.

That was bad enough but then I would work all night, go home, shower and then I had writing appointments all day because I was trying to get a career started.

I’d go write songs and get meetings just trying to get signed. And end up getting done at 3 of 4 with all of that, I’d go home, take a shower or sleep for a little bit and then I had to be at work again at midnight.”

Yeah, that sounds miserable enough as it is. But Eric said that wasn’t the reason he didn’t stay at the job very long. It turns out, it had something to do with the product he was selling:

“I sold knives from midnight to 7 or 8am. And, anytime somebody calls you at 3 or 4am and needs 200 knives for $19.95, it’s automatically an alarming situation.

And I just, I was young and I’d been in a lot of these people’s shoes, I had done this…I knew they were drunk. I knew what they had done. They’d just come home from the bar, flipped on Shop at Home and said, ‘You know what? I need that.’”

200 knives for $19.95? Something sounds off there… they can’t possibly be good knives. But that’s beside the point…

That being said, it’s pretty easy to do some drunk shopping, whether it’s online at Amazon or from some 3am infomercial that came on the TV while you drunkenly wolf down some Taco Bell.

But apparently Church wasn’t quite so eager to sell knives to people in the middle of the night:

“So the reason the job didn’t last long for me is that I was maybe the worst salesman in history because I ended up talking a lot of these people out of it.

I’d say, ‘I’ll tell you what man, go to bed, call me, I’ll be here in the morning. If you get up in the morning and want these knives you call me back.’

Because I knew what was going to happen, you know. They bought 200 knives for $19.95…first of all some of these people you didn’t know whether you should call the cops. What do you need 200 knives for? Even though I’m selling them…what do you need them for?”

But of course his bosses didn’t really appreciate the fact that he was talking people out of buying the product he was supposed to be selling:

“So, it was awful doing that job. And then they got rid of me because, they were like, ‘You’re the worst. I can’t believe you’re talking people out of it.’

I was like, ‘Man I know…I’ve been there.’ I’d want someone to talk me out of buying some of the stuff I’ve bought at 2am.”

Classic Eric Church: Never afraid to break the rules to look out for others.

And for obvious reasons, here’s this one: