Today the District of Maryland approved a “public access line” for a scheduling conference taking place at 1:00 p.m. ET in 25-951, Abrego Garcia v. Noem (full docket here).

This is the first time that public, out-of-court access — i.e., a call-in number (877-336-1831; 8393132#) — has been permitted in the case. Prior to today, none of the hearings included a call-in number.

Today’s action follows Fix the Court filing a motion to intervene last month, in which we requested that Judge Paula Xinis allow a call-in number, a YouTube link or some other form of live audio access.

As you may recall, this is the first time we’ve filed a motion like this, and we again want to thank our attorneys at Public Justice and Correia & Puth for submitting the motion on our behalf.

Hopefully this access becomes the norm in D. Md. and in other expedited removal cases across the country.