bitchy | Prince Harry lost his High Court security appeal (update)

The British High Court will release their ruling on Prince Harry’s security appeal today, around 2 pm GMT (around 9 am EST). Harry went to London for the two-day appeal hearing last month, much to the chagrin of Buckingham Palace. This appeal is likely Harry’s final chance to fight his current security arrangement in the UK, which forces him to give 30-days notice to the Met Police, and even then, the police and Ravec can still reject his security requests for no reason at all.

The Duke of Sussex will discover whether he has won a Court of Appeal challenge over his security arrangements while in the UK on Friday afternoon, according to court listings.

Harry is challenging the dismissal of his High Court claim against the Home Office over the decision of the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec) that he should receive a different degree of protection when in the country. At a two-day hearing in April, barristers for the duke told the Court of Appeal that he was “singled out” for “inferior treatment” and that his safety, security and life are “at stake”.

The Home Office, which is legally responsible for Ravec’s decisions, opposes the appeal, with its lawyers telling the court that Ravec’s decision was taken in a “unique set of circumstances” and that there was “no proper basis” for challenging it.

Court listings show that Sir Geoffrey Vos, Lord Justice Bean and Lord Justice Edis will hand down their ruling at the Royal Courts of Justice in London at 2pm on Friday.

[From The Evening Standard]

I will update this post when the ruling comes out. I don’t have high hopes for this appeal, and Buckingham Palace/royal sources have already said outright that even if Harry’s appeal is successful, it won’t really change anything and they’ll find some other way to reject his security requests and put him in danger. It’s clear that Harry’s legal journey has had multifold objectives, including his fact-finding mission to understand how badly he was screwed over in 2020 and who gave the orders to leave his family in mortal danger.

Update: Predictably, Prince Harry has lost his appeal. This means that Ravec was officially within their rights to downgrade his security when he’s in the UK, and there will still be some kind of “bespoke” process wherein Harry must give 30-days notice, and even then, the police might reject his security requests. From People:

Prince Harry lost his high-stakes appeal to reinstate the state-funded United Kingdom security, which he says was unjustly revoked after he stepped back from royal duties and relocated to the United States in 2020.

Judge Sir Geoffrey Vos dismissed the appeal on Friday, May 2, adding that the two other judges agreed with his opinion. Delivering the verdict, Vos said, “The Duke was, in effect, stepping in and out of the cohort of protection provided by RAVEC [the government’s Royal and VIP Executive Committee]. Outside the U.K., he was outside the cohort, but when in the U.K., his security would be considered as appropriate depending on the circumstances. It was impossible, I said in my judgment, to say that this reasoning was illogical or inappropriate. Indeed, it seemed sensible.”

Basically, the court decided that Ravec can do whatever they want without doing any kind of real threat assessment. Again, I hope that Harry understands that these people are his biggest opps.

Update: we will have special coverage of Harry’s statement and BBC interview on Saturday. I am including the BBC interview below.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.