Supreme Court Hears Foster Photo Case
By GINA HOLLAND .c The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - A troubled Supreme Court considered Wednesday whether government photographs of dead bodies should be kept private, in an emotional revival of a 10-year-old debate over the death of a White House lawyer.
Multiple investigations determined that a depressed Vincent Foster shot himself in the head, but California attorney Allan Favish and some others say he may have been murdered as part of a cover-up by the Clinton administration.
Favish's pursuit of 10 death scene pictures, opposed by the government and Foster's family, has raised a question for the justices: Can the government keep some records from the public to protect the privacy of survivors?
Bush administration attorney Patricia Millett said government files are packed with sensitive information - autopsy photographs of U.S. soldiers killed overseas and pictures of unidentified remains from the Sept. 11 attacks, for example. Releasing them would be irresponsible, she said, unless someone has clear proof of government wrongdoing.
Favish, known as a Clinton antagonist, told the court that the Freedom of Information Act does not give any special privacy rights to relatives.
He is backed by media groups, which say the government is trying to get a ruling that would keep too much information off-limits and hurt journalists trying to uncover wrongdoing and abuse in federal agencies.
Federal law, which allows reporters and others to get some unclassified records, says that officials may withhold information that could cause ``an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.''
James Hamilton, a lawyer representing Foster's survivors, said that they kept his casket closed at the funeral and ``to open it now would be an unconscionable invasion of privacy.''
``It's been 10 years. It's time to give this family some peace,'' Hamilton said, as Foster's widow, Lisa, and other relatives watched in the courtroom.
Foster, 48, was found dead of a gunshot to the head in a park in Virginia in 1993. The longtime friend of Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton was handling several personal legal matters for them at the time.
The Bush administration maintains that thousands of pages of reports about the Foster death and more than 100 photographs have already been released, and five government investigations concluded that the death was a suicide.
``You're just demonstrating some foot faults in each of these investigations,'' Justice Antonin Scalia told Favish. ``Who cares?''
But Favish said it was clear that officials made mistakes in declaring the death a suicide. ``I think the government can no longer be trusted to filter the raw evidence to the public in this case,'' he said.
While Scalia seemed at times sympathetic to Favish, there was skepticism from many of the other justices.
``There is a tradition going back thousands of years ... respect for the dead, respect for survivors,'' Justice Stephen Breyer said.
David H. Souter, the most private of the nine justices, said families would be pursued by reporters for interviews and their homes would be photographed if records were released.
In an unusual exchange, Scalia said that conspiracy theorists could argue that the five investigations showed proof of a widespread Washington cover-up. One probe was conducted by independent prosecutor Kenneth Starr, a conservative attorney and adversary of the Clintons.
``It is a difficult argument to make that Judge Starr conspired with members of the Clinton administration'' in the death, Hamilton told Scalia.
``Mr. Starr might have been protecting (Former House Speaker) Newt Gingrich,'' Scalia replied, drawing laughter from the courtroom. ``We really don't know.''
The case is Office of Independent Counsel v. Favish, 02-954.
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Hehe. Not to agree with the AP, but I think it's safe to call Allan a "Clinton Antagonist". I think HE would agree.
There is an even longer tradition at stake here.
Justice for the dead and the survivors!
Too bad FOX isn't giving this story 1/20th the time it wastes on Lacy, Kobe and Dru. It would be solved quickly!