A coalition of media organizations—including the “Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, The WashingtonPost, NBCUniversal News Group, ProPublica, Inc., Texas Press Association, The Freedom ofInformation Foundation of Texas, The Markup, and Gannett Co., Inc. (the publisher of theAmarillo Globe-News and seven other Texas-based newspapers) (collectively, the ‘News MediaCoalition’)—object to Judge Kacsmaryk's secrecy in this case, and filed this request that Wednesday's hearing and future actions in the case be publicly docketed promptly.
An ultra-conservative district judge in Texas seems to be trying to take a page from the Trump majority on the U.S. Supreme Court and do his dirty work in the shadows. That’s how the highest court has delivered some of the most momentous and destructive rulings in the last few years, from the shadow docket of “emergency” requests, with no public hearings and no transparency.
The lower courts don’t have the equivalent of a shadow docket because they’re not the highest court—they’re not getting the requests for emergency orders. But that hasn’t stopped U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk from trying to craft a version of it. He’s the Trump appointee who could ban medication abortion across the nation from his seat in Amarillo, Texas, and it’s that case that he’s trying to keep out of the public eye.
The Washington Postreported over the weekend that he had taken the highly unusual step of scheduling the first hearing in the case for Wednesday without putting that hearing on the public court docket. In a conference call with attorneys on Friday, Kacsmaryk scheduled the hearing but told them he wasn’t going to put it on the docket until late the night before to try to keep the public—and abortion advocates—away. This was supposedly a move to minimize the threat to him and court personnel from protests.
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