Judge rejects Heritage Foundation bid to release Prince Harry visa records

The conservative think tank argued the public had an interest in how the Department of Homeland Security handled Harry’s application given his past drug use.

By Annabelle Timsit, Wash. Post, Sept. 24, 2024

A U.S. judge has denied a petition by the Heritage Foundation to release Prince Harry’s immigration records, ruling that the British royal’s right to privacy outweighs the public-interest arguments cited by the conservative think tank.

The Heritage Foundation and one of its employees, Mike Howell, sued the Department of Homeland Security last year after the agency denied the group’s request to release information relating to any disclosures Harry may have made about his past drug use when securing entry into the United States. The request came shortly after the release of Harry’s memoir, “Spare,” in which the Duke of Sussex revealed that he had used cocaine, cannabis and psychedelic mushrooms.

D.C. District Judge Carl J. Nichols, who was appointed by President Donald Trump in 2019, denied the Heritage Foundation’s request in a filing published Monday.

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