Prince Harry's chewing gummed visa drama is yet to be over

The Heritage Foundation is again pushing for a lawsuit concerning Prince Harry's US visa to be reopened after a US judge cited in September that “the public does not have a strong interest in disclosure of the duke's immigration records.”

The conservative think tank had previously sued the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to compel the release of the Duke of Sussex's visa records. But in September, the case was dismissed, and a redacted ruling sided with the Biden administration’s argument that Harry's privacy should be protected.

Judge Carl J. Nichols, in his redacted memorandum from September, wrote, “The government argues that the Duke has a privacy interest that outweighs any public interest in those records and has therefore withheld them.”

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“The Duke’s privacy interest outweighs any public interest, and therefore grants Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment.”

“Like any foreign national, the duke has a legitimate privacy interest in his immigration status.”

Why Heritage Foundation again pushing with a new lawsuit

Now, the Heritage Foundation has filed an application to vacate the ruling, asking for private communications between DHS and the judge to be unsealed. The organization’s legal team believes that the judge’s decision to redact certain details compromised their ability to fully argue their case, per a court document cited by Newsweek.

“This Court should vacate its opinion and order, enter all ex parte correspondence on the docket, unseal ex parte correspondence consistent with the Opinion.” The secrecy around the case “severely compromises [Heritage's] ability to prepare arguments on appeal,” they argue.

The foundation’s lawyers suggested there was “ample evidence of agency bad faith” in handling the matter and the court’s handling “does not comport with our adversarial system.”

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The visa fiasco started after Harry’s admissions in his memoir Spare that he had used various drugs, including cannabis, cocaine, magic mushrooms, and ayahuasca. The Heritage Foundation argues that such disclosures should have disqualified him from entering the United States, per court documents.

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