1st Amendment Violation – Standing to Sue

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: J.B., et al., v. Tiffany Woodard, et al.,

Case No.: 20-1212

Officials: WOOD, SCUDDER, and ST. EVE, Circuit Judges.

Focus: 1^st Amendment Violation – Standing to Sue

This case began as a divorce and child custody dispute in state court. After an allegation surfaced that Edwin Bush had choked his son, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services launched an investigation, and Bush’s then-wife Erika successfully sought a court order suspending Bush’s parenting time. Bush then turned to federal court and filed this lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 on behalf of himself and his children, alleging violations of their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights and claiming that DCFS employees’ conduct set off a series of events culminating in a state court order infringing on his and his kids’ right to familial association. The state defendants successfully moved to dismiss the case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. The district court concluded that Bush and his children not only lacked standing to bring a constitutional challenge to the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act, but also that the Younger abstention doctrine barred the court from ruling on the remaining constitutional claims. We agree on both fronts. Bush failed to allege facts sufficient to establish standing for his First Amendment claim. And adhering to principles of equity, comity, and federalism, we conclude that the district court was right to abstain from exercising jurisdiction over his remaining claims. We therefore affirm.

Affirmed

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Derek A Hawkins is Associate Corporate Counsel, IP at Amazon.