An Independence County circuit judge has granted Hunter Biden a new protective order in his Arkansas paternity case.
Circuit Judge Holly Meyer issued the order Monday, saying it supersedes and replaces all previous protective orders in the case.
Meyer ordered that "all information about or related to child support including affidavits of financial means is confidential information or confidential financial information and shall be sealed."
"There is good cause for the protection of private information of the parties in this cause," she wrote, noting that "the court has no concern for the political nature or aspects surrounding this case."
Hunter Biden is the son of President Joe Biden.
"This is a case about child support and the court has treated and will continue to treat these parties as any other members of this judicial district," Meyer wrote in Monday's order.
Attorneys for Biden and Lunden Roberts appeared before the judge Feb. 22 and made their arguments, according to court filings.
The hearing concerned a motion filed Dec. 27 by Biden's attorney, Brent Langdon, for clarification of an existing protective order.
Clinton Lancaster, Roberts' attorney, filed a motion that same day asking the judge to unseal Langdon's motion for clarification. He argued that Langdon was filing things under seal that shouldn't be under seal.
On Monday, Meyer also denied Lancaster's motion to unseal that court filing.
Monday's orders didn't address another motion filed Dec. 27 to change the last name of his daughter to Biden.
The request was made so that the 4-year-old girl could "benefit from carrying the Biden family name," according to a motion from Lancaster.
The "Biden name is now synonymous with being well educated, successful, financially acute, and politically powerful," he wrote.
A four-page rebuttal by Biden's attorney demanded "strict proof thereof that such request is in the best interest of the child."
The filing added that it is "apparent that the Plaintiff's motivations to disregard the once desired protective orders that the Plaintiff herself requested and to which the Defendant agreed for the protection and best interest of the child, have now dissipated in the interest of political warfare against the Defendant and his family.
"The Plaintiff equivocates in her arguments depending on the motions or response filed on the same day by praising the Defendant and the Biden name to support the requested name change, and then disparaging Defendant and his family in others," wrote Langdon. "In other filings on the same day as this motion, the Plaintiff takes the opportunity ... to spew about the Defendant including his 'ripe, and justified, public scrutiny resulting from his financial transactions'; the always good for public ridicule 'Burisma'; and that he is the 'subject of federal investigations'. And, of course, the Plaintiff takes the opportunity to take jabs at the sitting President of the United States. ...
"The child should have the opportunity for input at a time when the disparagement of the Biden name is not at its height," wrote Langdon. "The notoriety would no doubt rob this child of peaceful existence."
Roberts, who is from Batesville and an Arkansas State University graduate, met Hunter Biden while she was living in Washington and working for him, Lancaster previously said.
The child, initially referred to in the case as "Baby Doe," was born in August 2018. A paternity suit followed in May 2019.
A DNA test showed, "with near scientific certainty," that Biden is Baby Doe's father, Meyer declared in a January 2020 order. That month the parties agreed on temporary child support until the issue was resolved.
In March 2020, Hunter Biden and Roberts reached an agreement to settle their paternity and child-support suit. His request to have his child-support payments adjusted reopened the case last year.
In his 2021 book "Beautiful Things," Biden claimed he fought Roberts' paternity suit because he had no memory of the incident that led to the pregnancy.
The book chronicles his struggles with alcohol and drug abuse, which intensified after the death of his brother, Beau, in May 2015 and after his divorce was finalized two years later.
"The other women I'd been with during rampages since my divorce were hardly the dating type. We would satisfy our immediate needs and little else," Hunter Biden wrote, adding, "I'm not proud of it."
Meyer has scheduled a two-day bench trial for the paternity case on July 24-25.
Information for this article was contributed by Daniel McFadin of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.