This spring, the Justice Department decided it would not ask the Supreme Court to block the release of photographs showing the abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"It was hopeless to appeal," Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, explained, adding that the department considered the case "unwinnable."

But last month, the government appealed after all, filing a vigorous brief asking the court to hear the case. Lawyers have clients, and it is the clients who make the big decisions. Here the client was President Obama.

"The president, after consulting his military and national security advisors," the brief said, "determined that the photographs at issue should not be disclosed."