A federal appeals court is considering whether a lower court judge was wrong to rule that Alabama’s execution protocol should be unsealed at the request of news outlets.

U.S. District Judge Karon Bowdre ruled in May that the public has “a common law right of access” to a redacted version of the state’s lethal injection protocol and related court records. The state appealed, and a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta on Monday heard arguments in the appeal.