The Supreme Court has upheld the Obama administration’s efforts to withhold the release of photographs of prisoners being tortured and abused by US forces. On Monday the Supreme Court vacated a lower court ruling that would have required the government to release the photographs to the American Civil Liberties Union. According to a government brief, some of the photos show “soldiers pointing pistols or rifles at the heads of hooded and handcuffed detainees,” a soldier who appears to be striking a detainee with the butt of a rifle, and a soldier holding a broom “as if sticking its end” into a prisoner’s rectum.