A lawsuit filed against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to see if rules were followed in granting Prince Harry his U.S. visa is set down for hearing Tuesday in Washington, DC.
The Heritage Foundation, a D.C. -based conservative think tank launched the action after Harry revealed in his ghostwritten memoir Spare he had used drugs – both in his home country and California.
These admissions included tales of not just doing lines of cocaine at his elite Eton boarding school and smoking cannabis both there and, as a much older adult, at the Royal residence of Kensington Palace.
He also made public hallucinating on magic mushrooms at a party in California hosted by Courtney Cox in 2016.
“Widespread and continuous media coverage has surfaced the question of whether DHS properly admitted the Duke of Sussex in light of the fact that he has publicly admitted to the essential elements of a number of drug offenses in both the United States and abroad,” court documents obtained by CBS News outline.
“United States law generally renders such a person inadmissible for entry to the United States. Intense media coverage has also surfaced the question of whether DHS may have improperly granted the Duke of Sussex a waiver to enter the Country on a non-immigrant visa given his history of admissions to the essential elements of drug offenses,” the document continued.
The Heritage Foundation states under U.S. immigration law evidence of past drug use can be used as grounds to reject a visa application and Prince Harry, the fifth in line to the British throne, is no different from any other applicant in that regard.
The think tank is also seeking to have the duke’s file unsealed citing “immense public interest.” The group filed the action under the Freedom of Information Act.
The Heritage Foundation launched the legal battle against the U.S. government last month after it refused to release files relating to Prince Harry’s application for an American visa, as Breitbart London reported.
The filing makes reference to “many prominent examples” of celebrities with known drug habits trying to enter the United States in the past.
The list includes Happy Mondays musician Mark Berry who was refused a visa, Libertines Frontman Pete Doherty who was turned around at New York’s JFK airport and put on the next flight home, celebrity chef Nigella Lawson, and perhaps most famously John Lennon of the Beatles.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.