Questions on Harry's US visa application after confessing to drug use in memoir

Prince Harry has admitted in his autobiography and in the television interviews promoting it that he used cocaine, cannabis and magic mushrooms in the past. Grant/AP

The Biden administration could be sued over Prince Harry's US visa application after he admitted to drug use in his Spare memoir published earlier this year.

The Heritage Foundation, the largest conservative think tank in the United States, has demanded the release of the Duke's US visa application.

The US government has so far refused to make it public despite a freedom of information request. but the court will now decide whether officials should be compelled to release immigration documents.

U.S. immigration laws state that any alien «determined to be a drug addict» is classified as «ineligible» although immigration officials have discretion to override this rule.

Duke admitted in his autobiography and in television interviews promoting it that he had used cocaine, cannabis and magic mushrooms in the past. party at the Los Angeles home of Friends actress Courteney Cox in 2016.

Sources close to Duke have previously indicated that he was truthful in his visa application, suggesting that he did reveal his past drug use.

In the public interest

However, the think tank argued that it was in the public interest for authorities to divulge what he said about his drug use in his statement and the details of any waiver he was given, including the identity of the person making the decision.

One of the options available to immigration authorities in cases where people have confessed to using drugs is to require them to report their drug use to medical examiners for several months.

In court filings The Legacy Foundation and Mike Howell v. US Department of Homeland Security, the think tank argues that the Duke's visa request is of «huge public interest.»

Was it «open and transparent»?

Neil Gardiner, director of the Heritage Foundation's Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, said: “The drug problem is a huge issue. Applicants in the US must report whether they have used drugs. If they say yes, they must complete a much more detailed form. Sometimes they will be denied entry.

“It may have taken some high-level intervention to get him in, and we don’t know where that came from.

“We ask if he was open and transparent in his application, were there any special benefits, was he treated differently from everyone else? We believe in the rule of law.”

A source close to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex previously reported that Harry was truthful in his visa application, but would not be attracted by how detailed he was about his drug use.