ACLU-NYTimes FOIA Lawsuit For DOJ Drone Memos Denied

[Pat]

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On 1/3/2013, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of NY (i.e., Manhattan) granted the U.S. Department of Justice's Motion for Summary Judgment in the FOIA lawsuit brought by the ACLU and the New York Times for access to a classified legal document prepared by the Justice Department analyzing the government's legal authority to conduct targeted killings of terrorists abroad, including specifically, terrorists who are U.S. citizens.

This targeted-killings memo was also requested by at least 10 Members of Congress (all of whom were denied access) and sought by a FOIA lawsuit by the First Amendment Coalition in U.S. District Court in San Francisco (which is still pending, but likely to be influenced by the USDC/SDNY denial of access).

Interestingly, the Department of Justice argued in court that whether or not there even is such a memo is classified.

Here is the USDC/SDNY opinion denying the ACLU and the New York Times FOIA access to the DOJ's legal memo justifying the drone assassinations.

RL-z203-USDC-SDNY-DeniesFOIAReDrones-1-3-2013.pdf

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