A group of transgender individuals who sued two judges and a state attorney over an Illinois law preventing them from changing their names due to prior criminal convictions told a federal appeals court Wednesday that the judges aren't immune from the litigation.

In a reply brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, the plaintiffs said the judges—Chief Judge Timothy Evans of the Circuit Court of Cook County and Judge Rena Marie Van Tine of the court's county division—aren't acting in a judicial capacity as "neutral adjudicators" when they approve or deny name-change petitions and, therefore, can be sued since they're responsible for enforcing the law.