A defense bill signed into law by President Obama yesterday grants the federal government broad authority to withhold photos depicting alleged abuse of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Pentagon now has the power to bar the release of any detainee photo taken between September 11, 2001 and January 22, 2009.

The policy, which is in the 2010 Homeland Security Appropriations Act, might have rendered a pending Supreme Court case as moot. The American Civil Liberties Union had filed a lawsuit seeking the photos, and a federal court ordered their release earlier this year under the Freedom of Information Act.

Obama, who had originally said at the beginning of his presidency that he would make the photos public, reversed himself in May and directed the Justice Department to fight that court order. The Supreme Court was scheduled to discuss the appeal in conference this week.

The decision to suppress the photos was a tough political call for a president that campaigned on a promise of transparency. The ACLU said that decision made a mockery of Obama's stated commitment to accountability, but some Democrats in Congress have expressed a desire to leave Bush-era actions in the past, lest they distract the Obama administration from moving forward with new goals.

Announcing his decision this spring, Obama said the exemption to FOIA is necessary in this case, because releasing the photos would "further inflame anti-American opinion" and "put our troops in greater danger."

Although the photos "represent conduct that didn't conform with the Army manual," Obama said in May, "the publication of these photos would not add any additional benefit to our understanding of what was carried out in the past by a small number of individuals."

The ACLU disagreed in a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates last month, saying the photos "are of critical relevance to an ongoing national debate about accountability."

The ACLU's response to the legislation was harsh. Jameel Jaffer, director of the organization's National Security Project, said in a statement: "We are disappointed that the president has signed a law giving the Defense Department the authority to hide evidence of its own misconduct, and we hope the defense secretary will not take advantage of that authority by suppressing photos related to the abuse of prisoners."

The U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan filed a letter yesterday to the Supreme Court, saying a brief was forthcoming that addressed how the new legislation affects the court case.