Multiple groups filed a lawsuit today seeking the immediate release of an Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) opinion and other documents related to the Trump administration’s lethal strikes on civilian boats in international waters, claiming that previous Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and other governmental documents have not been honored within statutory guidelines.
The complaint, filed today in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), and the New York Civil Liberties Union, seeks the immediate release of a legal opinion authored by the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), within the Department of Justice (DOJ), pertaining to the U.S. military’s “claimed authority” to carry out lethal strikes on what the government has described as “narco-trafficking” vessels in the Caribbean.
The legal request also calls for the release of any unclassified summaries of that OLC opinion, in addition to the release of a July 2025 Presidential Directive to the Department of Defense authorizing the use of military force against Latin American drug cartels.
“The public deserves to know how our government is justifying the cold-blooded murder of civilians as lawful and why it believes it can hand out get-out-of-jail-free cards to people committing these crimes,” said Jeffrey Stein, staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project, said in a statement. “The Trump administration must stop these illegal and immoral strikes, and officials who have carried them out must be held accountable.”
Military.com reached out to the DOJ, State Department and White House for comment. A Pentagon spokesperson declined comment to Military.com, due to not commenting publicly on pending litigation.
Details of the Complaint
The 11-page complaint calls the “prompt disclosure of records critically important to ensuring informed public debate about the U.S. military’s unprecedented strikes…in clear violation of domestic and international law.”
It also calls such disclosure “necessary,” citing media reports that the OLC opinion provided to congressional members and members of their staffs purports to immunize personnel who authorized or took part in these unlawful strikes from future criminal prosecution. That report says the strikes are lawful acts as part of an alleged “armed conflict” with the unspecified drug cartels.
On Oct. 15 the ACLU and CCR submitted a FOIA request to OLC, the State Department and DoD desiring the release of said records. The suit alleges that to date, none of the aforementioned agencies have responded to and/or released affiliated records—notably during the maximum 30-day request period in place for agencies to make a determination.
Approximately 87 individuals have been killed in at least 22 strikes that first commenced Sept. 2, with recent controversy surrounding DoD and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth regarding investigations into whether alleged drug traffickers were killed as part of an ordered second strike on boat survivors.
‘Phony Wartime Rhetoric’
The groups also argue that under international law, an armed conflict between a state and non-state actor exists only if the non-state actor is an “organized armed group” that is structured and disciplined like regular armed forces—and it is engaged in “protracted armed violence” against the state.
They claim “there is no plausible argument that any drug cartel satisfies this test vis-a-vis the United States.”
“The Trump administration is displacing the fundamental mandates of international law with the phony wartime rhetoric of a basic autocrat,” Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said in a statement. “If the OLC opinion seeks to dress up legalese in order to provide cover for the obvious illegality of these serial homicides, the public needs to see this analysis and ultimately hold accountable all those who facilitate murder in the United States’ name.”
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