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This only grants a hearing on the petition filed by the government. In this part of the case I am defending the order to release 4 of the 10 photos. The widow's petition sought the same thing as the government's, to block release of the 4 photos. But that petition is still pending and the Supreme Court office worker I spoke to today said a decision on that petition won't be made public until May 19. It makes no sense to grant the government's petition and not grant the widow's.

Also, and more importantly, me petition to get the other 6 photos released is also pending. I cannot figure out why they would grant the government's and not also grant the widow's and grant mine since the same legal argument is at stake in all three petitions, i.e., do the survivors have a privacy interest in photos that do not depict them.

My petition is case no. 02-409. The government's is 02-954 and the widow's is 02-599.

Search the Supreme Court's docket for "favish" at www.supremecourtus.gov.

The briefs are at my web site at www.allanfavish.com.

I was initially perplexed by the Supreme Court's granting of the government's petition for certiorari while the other two petitions (mine and Lisa Foster Moody's) were put on "pending" status. I was concerned that this might mean that I was only going to be defending the Ninth Circuit's order that 4 of the 10 Polaroids be released and that the withholding of the other 6 Polaroids would not be considered by the Supreme Court.

However, I am now certain that all 10 Polaroids are at issue before the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court granted the petition for a writ of certiorari in case no. 02-954. This is the government's petition. However, by granting this petition, the Court will review all of the issues necessary to decide whether the OIC has the right to withhold any of the ten Polaroids that are the subject of the dispute. This is because Supreme Court Rule 14 (1) (a) states, in part: "The statement of any question presented is deemed to comprise every subsidiary question fairly included therein. Only the questions set out in the petition, or fairly included therein, will be considered by the Court." The government's statement of the question presented in its petition is: "Whether the Office of Independent Counsel properly withheld, under Exemption 7(C), photographs relating to the death of former Deputy White House Counsel Vincent Foster." This statement is broad enough to cover all of the issues that I raised in my petition as well as the issues raised in the other two petitions.

Regards,

Allan J. Favish
http://www.allanfavish.com