Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
58 Articles
The Assassination Ban and Targeted Killings
In public speeches, administration officials have criticized the use of the word “assassination” to characterize targeted killings carried out by the United States. The administration’s…
Drone Disclosures, Official and Not
As readers of this blog already know, last week The Intercept published a series of fascinating stories about the US drone campaign. The stories, and the official documents that…
The AUMF, ISIL, and… FOIA?
Earlier today on Twitter, USA Today‘s Brad Heath posted the key paragraphs from DOJ’s denial of his FOIA request for any OLC memos relating to the applicability of…
CIA and OLC Must Release More “Secret” Documents on Aulaqi Drone Strike
On Thursday, a federal district court in New York issued its latest ruling in the ACLU’s long-running Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation seeking the legal and factual…
There’s No Reason to Hide the Amount of Secret Law
Last week, President Obama announced a new policy that would allow private parties to pay ransoms to hostage takers. The policy was established through an executive order and an…
Collateral Effects of Secretary Clinton’s Nonofficial Email
On March 2, the New York Times reported that Hillary Clinton exclusively used a nongovernment email account during her tenure as Secretary of State. Last December, following a…
The Erosion of a Secret
Drone Timeline (Click to Enlarge) In connection with an ACLU Freedom of Information Act lawsuit pending before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the CIA has…
OLC Memos and FOIA: Why the (b)(5) Exemption Matters
The headline of yesterday’s D.C. Circuit decision in Electronic Frontier Foundation v. Department of Justice, in which the Court of Appeals rejected a FOIA request for a…
ACLU Sues CIA for Release of Torture Reports
Yesterday, the ACLU filed a FOIA lawsuit to compel the CIA to disclose two reports on the CIA’s post-9/11 detention and interrogation programs. The full complaint can…
Selective Disclosure About Targeted Killing
For several years, the ACLU has been pressing the Obama administration to be more transparent about the targeted-killing program. I’m starting to wonder whether it understands…