The Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is holding oral arguments Friday morning in the case of Garza v. Hargan at 10:00 am ET. The case involves a 17-year-old female going by the name Jane Doe. Doe is an undocumented immigrant who was detained by federal officials and sent to a facility in Texas. Doe is 15 weeks pregnant and is seeking an abortion, but federal officials won’t take her from the government-funded shelter to have the procedure, even after a state judge allowed it. Listen live in the player above.
A U.S. District Court judge ruled on Wednesday that government officials must allow Doe to get an abortion, but the government appealed. Looking to resolve this quickly, the court scheduled arguments for Friday morning. The District Court’s order called for officials to take Doe to get an abortion on Friday and/or Saturday.
Each side will be allowed 15 minutes to give their arguments and respond to questions from the panel of judges. The judges on Friday’s panel are Karen LeCraft Henderson, Brett M. Kavanaugh, and Patricia A. Millet.
The last time the D.C. Circuit had a live stream of oral arguments was back in 2001 during a Microsoft antitrust case. Chief Judge and former Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland decided on Thursday to allow audio of Friday’s arguments to be streamed on the internet. The request for live streaming came from Gabe Roth, executive director of Fix the Court, an organization that seeks transparency in the court system, including live broadcasts of proceedings.
