Pentagon ordered to show legal justification for boat strikes

A federal judge ordered the Pentagon and Justice Department to hand over, for his eyes only, the memo the administration claims authorizes lethal strikes on boats it suspects of drug smuggling. Judge Paul Engelmayer rejected the government's deliberative-process and attorney-client privilege claims, noting officials had already publicly cited the memo themselves. He'll now review it privately to sort out a narrower presidential-communications privilege question before ruling on public release.

The strikes, ongoing since last fall, have killed more than 200 people across roughly 70 incidents in the Caribbean and Pacific, according to reports cited in the case. The ACLU and Center for Constitutional Rights sued after FOIA requests for the memo were denied, arguing the public deserves to know the legal basis for what critics call killings of civilians without due process. A United Nations report this month suggested the campaign could amount to crimes against humanity.

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