Feds Forced to Release Drone Memo

On Monday, a Manhattan federal appeals court ruled that the U.S. Department of Justice must publicly release parts of a memorandum detailing legal justification for the 2011 targeted drone attack against US-born Anwar al-Awlaki. Two New York Times reporters had filed for access to the memo under the under the federal Freedom of Information Act. The three-judge panel of the 2^nd US Circuit Court of Appeals had unanimously reversed a lower court ruling that the government had a right to secrecy. “Whatever protection the legal analysis might once have had has been lost by virtue of public statements of public officials at the highest levels and official disclosure of the DOJ White Paper," Circuit Judge Jon Newman wrote for the appeals court panel in New York.