A second court case will liberate one of the stars (6)

I believe the answer is:

astral

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'one of the stars' is the definition.
(relating to stars or astronomy)

'a second court case' is the wordplay.
'second' becomes 's' (common abbreviation).
'court' becomes 'tribunal' (synonyms).
'case' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'tribunal' with its centre removed is 'tral'.
'a'+'s'+'tral'='ASTRAL'

'will liberate' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for astral that I've seen before include "Pertaining to the stars" , "Universal" , "Altars (anag)" , "Related to the stars" , "Characteristic of stars" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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