WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal appeals court judges Monday questioned whether the government has gone too far by searching the genital areas of Guantanamo detainees who want to meet with their lawyers.

“That’s rather provocative and offensive, isn’t it?” Judge Thomas Griffith asked a government lawyer at a hearing of a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Griffith, an appointee of President George W. Bush, added that the government has a “special obligation” to ensure that detainees’ access to counsel is preserved.