Advocacy groups filed a lawsuit on December 9 against the Trump administration demanding the release of the memo providing legal justification for U.S. military strikes on alleged drug boats.
The lawsuit cites the Freedom of Information Act and says memo’s release is “critically important” to ensure “informed public debate” about the strikes.
Advocacy groups behind the memo include the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Constitutional Rights and the New York Civil Liberties Union.
In a press release about the lawsuit, the ALCU condemned the boat strikes, which have occurred around 20 times and killed more than 80 people.
“The Trump administration is displacing the fundamental mandates of international law with the phony wartime rhetoric of a basic autocrat,” Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said. “If the OLC opinion seeks to dress up legalese in order to provide cover for the obvious illegality of these serial homicides, the public needs to see this analysis and ultimately hold accountable all those who facilitate murder in the United States’ name.”
The Trump administration declared the strikes legal because the United States was in “armed conflict” with them, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press.
