A New York federal appeals court ruled that given the federal government’s public statements and release of a white paper on the issue, it had waived its right to keep secret a Justice Department memo justifying the targeted killing of a U.S. citizen in a drone strike in 2011. The New York Times and the American Civil Liberties Union had sued for the release of the memo. (The New York Times, April 21, 2014, by Benjamin Weiser)
The First Amendment Coalition , April 15, 2014, lost an April 11 ruling in California federal district court that the Obama administration was justified in withholding a legal memo with the rationale for the drone strikes against suspected terrorists who were U.S. citizens.
Writing for the panel in the New York ruling, Judge Jon Newman dismissed the possibility that releasing a properly redacted memo would damage national security, “We also recognize that in some circumstances legal analysis could be so intertwined with facts entitled to protection that disclosure of the analysis would disclose such facts. Aware of that possibility, we have redacted, as explained above, the entire section of the OLC-DOD Memorandum that includes any mention of intelligence gathering activities.” (Courthouse News Service, April 21, 2014, by Adam Klasfeld)
The ACLU hailed the court’s decision, “The government can’t legitimately claim that everything about the targeted killing program is a classified secret while senior officials selectively disclose information meant to paint the program in the most favorable light. The public has a right to know why the administration believes it can carry out targeted killings of American citizens who are located far away from any conventional battlefield.” (American Civil Liberties Union, April 21, 2014, press release)