A judge has ruled that the Duke of Sussex’s US visa application should remain private despite him admitting to taking drugs in his memoir.
A conservative think tank challenged why the royal was allowed into the US in 2020 after he referred to taking cocaine, marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms in his book, Spare.
However, in a ruling seen in court documents on Monday, US judge Carl Nichols said “the public does not have a strong interest in disclosure of the duke’s immigration records”.
The judgment added: “Like any foreign national, the duke has a legitimate privacy interest in his immigration status.”
The lawsuit was brought by The Heritage Foundation against the Department for Homeland Security (DHS) after a Freedom of Information Act request was rejected, with the think tank claiming it was of “immense public interest”.
But Judge Nichols said the public’s interest in Harry’s immigration records is “outweighed by the duke’s privacy interest”.
He said: “Public disclosure of records about a single admission of a foreign national in the circumstances described above would provide the public, at best, limited information about the department’s general policy in admitting aliens.
“And the marginal public benefit of knowing that limited information is outweighed by the privacy interest the duke retains in his immigration status and records.”
More to follow…
