Legal Extrajudicial Killings of US Citizens Memo Released

Can the US government kill you without legal due process.  The September 2011 killing of a U.S. citizen in Yemen in a targeted drone strike shows the answer to be maybe under certain circumstances.  As part of the US government’s decision to kill Anwar al-Awlaki, the Department of Justice (DOJ) wrote a memo supporting the assassination.  Interestingly, the author of the memo is David Barron who was recently confirmed as a federal appeals court judge in Boston.

The memo was ordered released (with redactions) by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in Freedom of Information Act litigation brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Times. Specific facts underlying Barron’s analysis are in the redacted portion of the 2010 memo.

To view the memo that was not redacted click [here].