Amicus Brief on the Necessity of Court Access in Maryland’s Family Policing System
The Case
Behind closed doors, a Maryland judge barred a 13-year-old, K.B., from attending a hearing to decide whether she should be taken away from her grandmother, with whom she had lived virtually her whole life. Against K.B.’s wishes, the judge removed K.B. from her family and sent her to live with strangers in the foster system. The judge considered K.B. old enough to bear the consequences of the decisions made at that hearing, but too immature to be in the courtroom while the judge reached those decisions, based on her age and the theoretical harm of hearing difficult testimony.
Our Advocacy
In April 2026, Movement for Family Power co-authored an amicus brief along with Civil Rights Corps, in support of K.B. 's access to court. The brief argues that:
Excluding K.B. from her own hearing violates her due process rights.
Conducting proceedings in a courtroom that is, by default, closed to the public infringes on the public’s qualified First Amendment right of access.
Meaningful public access to court proceedings is essential for greater transparency in family policing courts; without it, racism, classism, and other harms of the family policing system go unchecked.
Advancement Project, AntiracistMD, April Lee, Bloom Collective, Caitlin Glass, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Center on Reproductive Rights and Justice, Civil Rights Corps, Community Legal Services of Philadelphia, Daniel L. Hatcher, Doing Right By Birth, Dorothy Roberts, Dreams R. Us Inc., Elephant Circle, Elizabeth Scott, Erinma Ukoha, Free Hearts, Give Us Back Our Children, Hon. Jay Blitzman, If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice, Jane M. Spinak, Joyce McMillan, JMACforFamilies, Juvenile Justice Clinic at Loyola Law School, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (“LSPC”), Leigh Goodmark, Margaret Johnson, Matthew Fraidin, Melody Webb, Mining For Gold, Mishka Terplan, Mothers Outreach Network, Movement for Family Power, NYC Family Policy Project, Operation Stop CPS, Philly Voice for Change, the Reproductive Justice Clinic, Roshell Amezcua, Rupinder Legha, Sarah Katz, Sarah Lorr, the Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Families, Children and Courts (“CFCC”), Shanta Trivedi, Silicon Valley De-Bug, the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, The Bronx Defenders, The Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law, The MJCF Coalition, The People’s Law Collective, The South East Family Freedom Alliance, The University of Baltimore School of Law Family Law Clinic, Vivek Sankaran, and Youth Represent signed on to the amicus brief.