(This post originally ran Oct. 29, 2024, but has been updated with several transfers that have occurred since then.)

In a prior post, we wrote about how the complaint identified by the Federal Circuit against Judge Pauline Newman should be transferred to another circuit for review and adjudication.

Why is that? Because the judges you work most closely with should not be a part of the council that determines whether or not you’ve committed misconduct.

After more than three years, the complaint was finally transferred in August, and the public was informed about it on Oct. 6.

As you’ll recall, transfers can happen under Rule 26 of the Rules for Judicial-Conduct and Judicial-Disability Proceedings:

“In exceptional circumstances, a chief judge or a judicial council may ask the Chief Justice to transfer a proceeding based on a complaint […] to the judicial council of another circuit. The request for a transfer may be made at any stage of the proceeding before a reference to the Judicial Conference […]. Upon receiving such a request, the Chief Justice may refuse the request or select the transferee judicial council, which may then exercise the powers of a judicial council under these Rules.”

What’s more, according to a Dec. 2024 Judge Newman filing (pp. 25-26 of this PDF):

“This was the first time in history […] that a complaint against a circuit judge which proceeded to the committee investigation stage was kept within the same circuit. In all previous instances, complaints against circuit judges which were not dismissed after preliminary review by the relevant circuit’s chief judge were […] transferred to another circuit’s judicial council.”

That’s an important precedent the Federal Circuit should have followed here from the beginning, with the beginning begin March 2023.

Updated numbers (as of 10/16/26):

Here’s a list, with circuit judges in bold and district judges in italics. If there was more than one complaint for the same alleged act(s), and those complaints were consolidated, we count that as a single transfer:

1. Complaint against Federal Circuit Judge Newman transferred from the Federal Circuit to the Eleventh Circuit (2026)
2. Complaints against Ninth Circuit Judge Nelson transferred from the Ninth Circuit to the Fourth Circuit (2026: one, two)
3. Complaint against D. D.C. Chief Judge Boasberg transferred from the D.C. Circuit to the Sixth Circuit (2025)
4. Complaint against CA4 Judge Wynn transferred from the Fourth Circuit to the Second Circuit (2025)
5. Complaint against W.D.N.C. Judge Cogburn transferred from the Fourth Circuit to the Second Circuit (2025)
6. Complaint against S.D. Ohio Judge Marbley transferred from the Sixth Circuit to the Second Circuit (2025)
7. Complaint against D. D.C. Judge Howell transferred from the D.C. Circuit to the Tenth Circuit (2024)
8. Complaint against D. Mass. Judge Ponsor transferred from the First Circuit to the Fourth Circuit (2024)
9. Complaint against D. D.C. Judge Walton transferred from the D.C. Circuit to the Third Circuit (2024)
10. Complaint against C.I.T. Judge Vaden transferred from the Court of International Trade to the Seventh Circuit (2024)
11. Complaint against CA11 Judge Pryor and N.D. Ala. Judge Maze (two judges in a single complaint) transferred from the Eleventh Circuit to the Second Circuit (2021)
12. Complaint against two unidentified circuit judges transferred from an unknown circuit to the Third Circuit (2020)
13. Complaint against “a current judge, a former judge and unnamed judicial peers and colleagues” transferred from the D.C. Circuit to the Eleventh Circuit (2019)
14. Complaints against then-CADC Judge Kavanaugh transferred from the D.C. Circuit to the Tenth Circuit (2018)
15. Complaint against CA3 Judge Trump Barry transferred from the Third Circuit to the Second Circuit (2018)
16. Complaint against CA9 Judge Kozinski transferred from the Ninth Circuit to the Second Circuit (2017)
17. Complaint against D. D.C. Judge Roberts transferred from the D.C. Circuit to the Tenth Circuit (2016)
18. Complaint against CA5 Judge Jones transferred from the Fifth Circuit to the D.C. Circuit (2013)
19 Complaint against CA6 Judge Martin transferred from the Sixth Circuit to the Second Circuit (2012)
20. Complaint against CA9 Judge Kozinski transferred from the Ninth Circuit to the Third Circuit (2008)

Per the 2006 Breyer Committee report, Committee staff “identified eight instances since 1980 in which the Chief Justice designated a circuit judge to handle a complaint in another circuit pursuant to the intercircuit assignment statute,” p. 121.

That makes 28 transfers in total and doesn’t include a few others we believe are still being decided.

If you are aware of any others, please email us at Info@FixTheCourt.com.