Prince Harry the Real Winner in Visa Drugs Case
Prince Harry got a major boost after a judge ruled he has the right to privacy in relation to his visa application for entry into America.
The Duke of Sussex moved to California in 2020 and has spent the last four years as a resident of Montecito with Meghan Markle and their children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet .
However, conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation raised the prospect his dream life could be shattered if he had lied on his visa records about taking drugs. They filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security calling for transparency over the issue.
Harry's book Spare detailed his past experiences with cannabis, magic mushrooms, cocaine and ayahuasca, noting that psychedelic drugs "didn't simply allow me to escape reality for a while, they let me redefine reality."
Specifically, Heritage wanted to know whether the Biden administration had granted Harry preferential treatment and the attention the group drew to the issue led Donald Trump to issued a veiled warning the prince's right to live in America could be under threat.
Newsweek revealed earlier this month that the case had been abruptly terminated with failure for Heritage the likely outcome, however, now a memorandum has been made public confirming the outcome.
Judge Carl Nichols wrote in the filing, seen by Newsweek: "The government argues that the Duke has a privacy interest that outweighs any public interest in those records and has therefore withheld them (and, with respect to one category, has declined to confirm whether they exist at all).
"Following in camera review of certain records and associated declarations, the Court agrees that the Duke's privacy interest outweighs any public interest, and therefore grants Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment."
The case was notable not only because it threatened the embarrassment of Harry's private information entering the public domain but also the lingering prospect—however unlikely—that the prince's visa might be withdrawn in the event he was found to have lied.
Immigration experts told Newsweek fairly early on that would be a remote prospect in the normal course of Department of Homeland Security business without a criminal charge related to drug use.
Neama Rahmani, president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, previously told Newsweek : "Prince Harry's Visa application would likely have been denied had he admitted using cocaine, mushrooms, or other drugs recreationally because drug use is a grounds for inadmissibility. There is no requirement that the person actually be convicted of a drug offense.
"But absent an arrest or conviction, Department of Homeland Security doesn't aggressively enforce this provision and revoke Visas for people already in the United States."
However, the situation became more complicated when Trump waded in, arguing that the Biden administration were protecting Harry and hinting he might take a different course if reelected president.
"We'll have to see if they know something about the drugs, and if he lied they'll have to take appropriate action," the Republican candidate told U.K. politician Nigel Farage during an interview.
The leader of Britain's Reform party asked whether "that might mean not staying in America?" Trump said: "Oh I don't know. You'll have to tell me. You just have to tell me."
The lawsuit was also notable as a barometer for assessing different reactions to Harry and Meghan in Britain and America.
The Sussexes have spoken at length about how badly Meghan was treated by the British media yet no one in Britain ever filed a lawsuit involving her, let alone with the veiled threat of her visa being revoked and her right to remain in the country being stripped away.
The case therefore served in part as a symbol of conservative America's willingness to be at least as hostile to the couple as right wing Britain, if not more so.
Heritage argued in a court filing that Harry "voluntarily—and for immense profit—admitted in writing to the elements of any number of controlled substance violations. (Indeed, some say HRH has approached the point of bragging and encouraging illegal drug use.)"
Throughout the case, Harry has maintained silence and will now no doubt be hoping to put the saga behind him.
The publication of the judge's memorandum came on Monday part way through a tour of New York which saw him brush shoulders with European royalty and discuss his mother's legacy.
Harry wrote in Spare that, while staying at Tyler Perry's house during his first months in America in 2020: "Late at night with everyone asleep, I'd walk the house checking the doors and windows. Then I'd sit on the balcony or the edge of the garden and roll a joint."
Elsewhere, he described how "psychedelics did me some good as well. I'd experimented with them over the years, for fun, but now I'd begun to use them therapeutically, medicinally.
"They didn't simply allow me to escape reality for a while, they let me redefine reality. Under the influence of these substances I was able to let go of rigid preconcerts, to see that there was another world beyond my heavily filtered senses, a world that was equally real and doubly beautiful—a world with no red mist, no reason for red mist. There was only truth.
"After the psychedelics wore off my memory of that world would remain: This is not all there is. All the great seers and philosophers say our daily life is an illusion. I always felt the truth in that."
Writing about cocaine, Harry said: "It wasn't much fun and it did not make me feel especially happy as it seemed to do to everyone else, but it did make me feel different, and that was my main objective.
"I was a 17-year-old boy ready to try anything that altered the preestablished order."
Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter , at and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
