The state’s high court ruled Thursday that the initial court hearings for 28 men accused of being customers of a high-end brothel will be open to the public when they are held in Cambridge District Court. The Supreme Judicial Court’s ruling upheld a previous decision from a clerk-magistrate.

These types of hearings are not typically held in open court. But there is a legitimate public concern that if the hearings were held behind closed doors, justice may not be served, the court ruled.