In March 2015, the ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit demanding information about the government’s targeted-killing program, including the Obama administration’s Presidential Policy Guidance (PPG) under which the program operates. In a crucial victory, the government released a redacted version of the PPG and four other documents. Many other documents were kept secret, however, and the ACLU continues to seek additional records through additional FOIA requests and litigation concerning the specific legal standards the government invokes when using lethal force abroad, and how they apply in practice.

A U.S. military raid in Yemen on January 29, 2017, left one Navy SEAL and many Yemeni civilians dead. The ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act request in March with the Central Intelligence Agency and the Departments of Defense, Justice, and State. In May 2017, we filed a lawsuit asking a federal court to enforce the request, which asks for records including the legal basis and decision-making process used for the raid, as well as assessments of civilian deaths afterwards.

In a Freedom of Information Act request filed on January 13, 2010, the ACLU asked the government to disclose the legal and factual basis for its use of predator drones to conduct "targeted killings" overseas. In particular, the ACLU sought to find out when, where, and against whom drone strikes can be authorized, and how the United States ensures compliance with international laws relating to extrajudicial killings.

In October 2011, the ACLU submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking information about the killings of three U.S. citizens in Yemen: Anwar al-Aulaqi; his 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman al-Aulaqi; and Samir Kahn. Over five years of litigation, this case was appealed to the Second Circuit three times. The government acknowledged it had killed the three Americans, and was forced to describe targeted-killing program documents in its possession. The ACLU won an important victory in securing the release of a memorandum in which the government set out its legal justification for killing Anwar al-Aulaqi in June 2014. In December 2016, the Second Circuit ruled that no other documents must be disclosed, concluding this litigation. The ACLU continues to seek additional details about the targeted killing program’s rules and consequences through other FOIA requests and cases.