⚖ Oral Arguments, with Context

The Seventh Circuit considers a lawsuit over access to a state family-court hearing. Conor Paris and the nonprofit Children of the Court say a judge barred him from a Zoom hearing involving his parents' post-divorce case, even though other members of the public were allowed to attend. They say the organization's director was later excluded as well. They sued in federal court, claiming a violation of the First Amendment right of access. The district court dismissed their claims, relying in part on judicial immunity, which generally protects judges from damages suits for their judicial acts. It also found too little alleged personal involvement by the chief judge. The appeal asks whether excluding a spectator was a protected judicial decision or an administrative act. It also raises a separate question: should the federal courts step back from intervening in how state courts run their proceedings? That issue is called abstention. Listen for the distinction between whether the exclusion was wrong and whether this federal lawsuit is a permitted way to challenge it.

Children of the Court v. Abbey Fishman Romanek (No. 25-2526) — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, argued November 6, 2026.