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Linh Tran Stephens v. Oklahoma Department of Human Services, Child Support Services, et al.

IFP petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, No. 25-5063 · judgment January 16, 2026


Pending

Questions presented

  1. Whether claims that a state agency and a private financial institution jointly liquidated an ERISA-protected retirement account, without a qualified domestic relations order, may be dismissed at the pleading stage without any analysis of ERISA.

  2. Whether due process permits a state agency to irreversibly liquidate retirement property before the hearing it scheduled to review the seizure, without notice to every account owner.

  3. Whether federal courts may dismiss, rather than stay, federal damages claims under Younger abstention outside the three categories recognized in Sprint Communications, Inc. v. Jacobs, 571 U.S. 69 (2013), where bad faith is shown and no adequate state forum exists.

  4. Whether the Eleventh Amendment permits dismissal of damages claims against state officials sued in their individual capacities, claims for prospective relief against ongoing violations of federal law, and claims against private parties who possess no immunity.

  5. Whether a court of appeals violates due process when it excludes a pro se litigant's appendix from the record and then affirms on the ground that her arguments lack record support.

  6. Whether federal courts must address treaty-based claims raised by a foreign national under ratified international conventions.

  7. Whether federal courts must remedy, rather than rely upon, orders obtained through fraud on the court. 8. Whether a documented pattern of falsified casework and misuse of public funds, confirmed by federal investigation and state audit, establishes policy-or-custom liability under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against defendants not shielded by immunity.

  8. Whether a pleaded Fair Debt Collection Practices Act claim—that collectors reported a disputed obligation to credit-reporting and passport agencies without disclosing the dispute, refused the validation demanded in writing, and then collected through an irreversible seizure—may be dismissed without any analysis of the statute.

  9. Whether the Full Faith and Credit Clause bars a State from retroactively modifying a sister State's final divorce decree, which its own courts acknowledged as binding, where no party moved to modify it.

  10. Whether a pleaded civil RICO claim under 18 U.S.C. § 1964(c), resting on mailand wire-fraud predicates in the collection of a non-existent obligation through a federally funded enforcement program, may be dismissed without analysis of its elements.

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Linh Tran Stephens

For respondent

Case

Conference history

Proceedings

  1. Apr 13 2026
    Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due September 16, 2026)