U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer ordered the Trump administration Wednesday to release its legal justification for fatal boat attacks in the Caribbean and Pacific, rejecting the Department of Justice's arguments to keep an Office of Legal Counsel memo hidden.
Engelmayer, appointed by Barack Obama, issued a 66-page ruling that found the government's privilege claim insufficient to withhold the OLC memo, which the ACLU and other groups sued to obtain under the Freedom of Information Act.
The Defense Department began attacking boats in August 2025 under a presidential directive authorizing military force against foreign criminal groups allegedly trafficking drugs into the United States. The operations have killed 234 people.
The ACLU submitted its FOIA request for the OLC memo in December 2025. The Pentagon initially denied it, citing three exemptions to the transparency law. The Trump administration and ACLU later agreed two exemptions could allow a limited, redacted release after judicial review. But the government claimed a third exemption—executive privilege—permitted withholding the memo entirely.
Engelmayer found that insufficient. His ruling stated: "In public statements regarding the legality of the boat strikes, DOD and Administration officials have relied exclusively on the OLC Memo as defining the parameters of their authority to undertake these strikes."
Neither the Justice Department nor Defense Department identified any other written guidance establishing the legal basis for the attacks. A DOJ attorney acknowledged during arguments that while portions of the memo might contain facts requiring redaction for national security or statutory reasons, "the balance of the document likely could not be withheld based on those exemptions."
The parties agree that some portions may be properly redacted for national security and statutory reasons. The core dispute centers on the underlying legal analysis the ACLU wants to make public.
