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The Biden administration could be taken to court over Prince Harry’s US visa application, following his admissions of drug-taking in his memoir, Spare, published earlier this year.
The Heritage Foundation, the biggest conservative think tank in the United States, has demanded the release of the Duke’s American visa application.
The US Government has so far refused to release it, despite a freedom of information request, but a court will now rule on whether to compel officials to release immigration records to the public.
US immigration laws state that any foreigner “determined to be a drug abuser” is classed as “inadmissible”, although immigration officials can use their discretion to waive the rule.
The Duke admitted in his autobiography - and in television interviews promoting it - to taking cocaine, cannabis and magic mushrooms in the past.
Prince Harry's memoir Spare released in January. Photo / AP
He also owned up to taking magic mushroom chocolates - illegal in the US - at a party at the Los Angeles home of Courtney Cox, the actress from the series Friends, in 2016.
Sources close to the Duke have previously indicated that he was truthful on his visa application, suggesting that he did disclose his past drug use.
In the public interest
However, the think tank has argued that it is in the public interest for the authorities to divulge what he said about his drug use on his application, and the details of any waiver he was granted, including the identity of the person making the decision.
One possibility open to immigration officials in cases where people have admitted to drug use is to require them to update medical examiners on their intake over a matter of months.
In the court filings, the Heritage Foundation and Mike Howell v US Department of Homeland Security, the think tank argues that the request for the Duke’s visa application is of “immense public interest”.
Was he “open and transparent”?
Nile Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Centre for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation, said: “The drug issue is a huge question. Applicants to the US have to say if they have used drugs. If they say yes, they have to fill out a much more detailed form. Sometimes they will be denied entry.
“For him to have got in may have required some kind of high-level intervention and we don’t know where that came from.
“What we are asking is whether he was open and transparent with the application, whether there were any particular favours given - was he treated differently to everybody else? We believe in the rule of law.”
A source close to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex previously said that Harry had been truthful on his visa application, but would not be drawn on the extent to which he detailed his drug-taking.
