The death of US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia last month sparked a political standoff. Republicans in Congress have unilaterally refused to confirm a new justice until after the November presidential election, while President Obama has indicated that he plans to fulfill his Constitutional duty by putting forth nominees.
One of the judges reportedly on the president’s shortlist is Ketanji Brown Jackson, and while she could one day be on the Supreme Court, for the time being, she has an important task at hand.
Jackson will rule in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, ultimately deciding whether or not the public has a right to know what, exactly, terrorist and unexpected cinephile Osama bin Laden was keeping in his X-rated video collection.
When US commandos killed bin Laden at his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011, they discovered what US officials described as a "fairly extensive" pornography stockpile. The bulk of the stash consists of digital videos.
A FOIA request was originally filed by college frat entertainment web site BroBible. The CIA initially declared that porn files, "should they exist, would be contained in operational files," and would be exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.
But on Monday, conservative group Judicial Watch filed their own lawsuit demanding that the information be made available to the public.
Judicial Watch and BroBible make strange bedfellows, but such requests are generally based on a desire for government transparency and accountability. In this particular case, some argue that releasing the terrorists’ porn collection could have unintended consequences.
Proponents of the porn dump argue that publicizing the material would undercut bin Laden’s image as a pious figure. It would prove difficult, after all, for religious fundamentalists to lionize a man who owned a copy of "Big Booties 7."
Opponents of the smut release argue that this plan could backfire, and be viewed among bin Laden supporters as a dirty Western trick that could spark additional outrage. It is also, they point out, undetermined whether the stash actually belonged to the terrorist leader or to someone else at the compound.
The case has it all: International intrigue, government transparency issues, privacy rights, and plenty of well-lit sex. In short: a perfect test for a potential Supreme Court justice.
