Last September, in upholding a lower court ruling ordering the release of the photos, the appeals court noted that past US administrations had championed the release of photos that showed prisoners of war being abused and tortured.
Notably, after World War II, the US government publicized photos of prisoners in Japanese and German prisons and concentration camps, which the court noted, "showed emaciated prisoners, subjugated detainees, and even corpses. But the United States championed the use of the photos as a means of holding the perpetrators accountable."
The petition heavily recycles the Bush administration's legal arguments and includes a previous sworn declaration from the likes of former Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers warning that releasing the photographs to the ACLU would threaten national security and could lead to the deaths of American servicemen and women in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In it's opposition brief filed with the Supreme Court, the ACLU contends that granting the Obama administration's petition "would only serve to further delay the disclosure of information that is of extraordinary interest to the public and of crucial importance to the ongoing national discussion about the abuse of prisoners in US custody overseas."
