The watchdog group Judicial Watch is battling the Obama administration in court for the release of 52 photos of the body of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and his burial.
The Justice Department has argued making the photos public could inflame tensions in the Muslim world. At the time of bin Laden’s killing in Pakistan, President Obama said he would not release the photos because he did not want the world to view it as “spiking the football.” The body was ultimately buried at sea.
In denying this Freedom of Information Act request, the administration said the photos could harm national security or lead to attacks on Americans overseas. The case is now in a federal appeals court.
Judge Andrew Napolitano was asked if the photos of bin Laden should be released (yea or ney)? His response:
“I wasn’t the judge in the case. But, had I been I would have said yea. The public policy of the government in a free society is that the government works for us. We don’t work for them. What’s in the government’s hands is available to us unless the revelation of it could harm some innocent individual or would gravely affect national security. So, I ask you, how could a photograph of a dead person gravely affect national security? …
“Once the documents are in the government’s hands, the public has the right to see them. That’s not just me. That’s what the Congress said when it enacted the Freedom of Information Act. And, it limited to very narrow areas the exceptions to it.”