A bipartisan group of Senators is endorsing a lawsuit that seeks to force the Obama administration to hand over secret legal justifications for targeting and killing American citizens without a trial.
In an amicus brief filed on Wednesday before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) joined three of his Democratic colleagues, Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), to call for the disclosure of the legal memos, which were prepared by the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC).
The documents lay out the legal rationale for the administration’s targeted killing of a three American citizens in Yemen.
“Despite the overwhelming public interest in these memoranda, which shed light on Executive Branch policy with regard to such action, the Executive has fought for years to keep them shielded from public view,” the lawmakers said in their brief.
The government’s appeal to secrecy in the case falls apart, according to the Senators, since administration officials have made numerous public statement related to the targeted killing of US citizens. They cited previous pronouncements by the court that found the government to be engaged in “an extensive public relations campaign to convince the public that [its] conclusions are correct.”
That includes assertions by Executive Branch officials that “the targeted-killing program was legally permissible” and “followed the standards set forth by the OLC.”
The Senators added that the release of these documents is necessary to “ensure that lawmakers are better able to monitor and check excesses and abuses by the Executive Branch and to ensure that the public has enough information to hold its Government accountable.”
On Tuesday, a district court in California agreed with the government’s claims to secrecy over a different matter: surveillance. As The Sentinel reported, Judge Jeffery White ruled that plaintiffs arguing that their constitutional rights were infringed upon by NSA spying activities couldn’t prove they were actually harmed. He went further to say that even if they could prove standing, their case would have to be dismissed to avoid “disclosure of state secret information.”
The lawsuit that Sens. Paul, Wyden, Heinrich and Merkley have injected themselves into was spearheaded by the American Civil Liberties Union and The New York Times. In 2012, they first sued for the OLC memos, and won a small victory last year when a federal appeals court ordered their release. After receiving only some of the memos, which included heavy redactions, the ACLU and the Times launched a second legal challenge to compel more disclosure by the Obama administration.
The matter surrounds a 2011 CIA drone strike in Yemen that killed US citizen Anwar al-Awaki. Another US citizen, Samir Khan, was killed in the attack. The two men were alleged to have played a role in terrorist recruitment for al Qaeda. Two weeks later, a US drone took out al-Awlaki’s 16-year-old son – a killing that US officials have yet to defend in any way.
In 2012, then-former White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told a reporter than al-Awlaki’s son may still be alive today if he had a “more responsible father.”
