U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer has ordered the Trump administration to turn over a secret Department of Justice memo authorizing lethal military boat strikes against drug traffickers for confidential judicial review. The ruling comes amid a FOIA lawsuit by the ACLU and other groups seeking transparency for a campaign that has killed over 230 people in 70 strikes since September 2025. While the administration claims national security and presidential privileges protect the document, the judge rejected key secrecy arguments, marking a major step in challenging the legal basis of the operations.
Court rulings on the memo's disclosure
- ▪U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer ruled on September 30, 2026, that the Trump administration must submit a Department of Justice memo authorizing lethal military boat strikes for his confidential review within two weeks.
- ▪U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer ordered the government to provide more information to resolve whether agencies waived their right to invoke presidential communications privilege over the Department of Justice memo.
- ▪U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer rejected the Trump administration's claims that the Department of Justice memo is protected from public release by deliberative process and attorney-client privileges.
The boat strike memo
- ▪The Trump administration argued that the September 2025 Office of Legal Counsel memo cannot be released due to national security implications and presidential communications privilege.
- ▪U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer ordered the Department of Justice to provide a full accounting of everyone who has seen the September 2025 Office of Legal Counsel memo since 2025.
Lawsuit seeking the memo's release
- ▪American Civil Liberties Union attorney Jeffrey Stein stated that the court order is a major step toward ensuring the government does not execute people based on secret law.
- ▪The American Civil Liberties Union, the New York Civil Liberties Union, and the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to demand the release of the Department of Justice memo.
The military boat strike campaign
- ▪More than 230 people have been killed in at least 70 military boat strikes in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean since the campaign began.
- ▪The Trump administration has conducted lethal kinetic strikes on vessels suspected of carrying drug traffickers in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea since the military campaign began on September 2, 2025.
Political debate over the strikes
- ▪President Donald Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth have defended the military boat strikes as necessary measures to stop illicit drugs and dismantle narco-terrorist networks.
- ▪Several Democratic lawmakers have accused President Donald Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth of giving illegal orders regarding the lethal boat strikes.
Debatable claims
- ▪Executive privilege is sufficient to shield legal memos from judicial review
- ▪The Trump administration's lethal boat strikes are justified by the threat of narco-terrorism
- ▪The Trump administration must publicly release the legal memo authorizing lethal boat strikes
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