A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the unsealing of several court documents in the lawsuit over Kilmar Abrego Garcia's deportation, rejecting the Trump administration's arguments that it would risk national security.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland issued her order after media organizations, including The Associated Press, argued the public has a right to access court records under the First Amendment.
Filings unsealed so far offer little information that's new or unknown publicly. Xinis described one document as "relatively boilerplate." It was a request by the Trump administration to temporarily halt discovery, an early phase of a lawsuit where parties share evidence.
"It does not disclose any potentially privileged or otherwise sensitive information for which a compelling government interest outweighs the right to access," Xinis wrote.
Xinis noted that some documents were public before the court was asked to seal them the next day. Those filings contained a back-and-forth between Abrego Garcia's attorneys and the U.S. government over efforts to return him from El Salvador.