The ACLU's Jameel Jaffer joined Democracy Now's Amy Goodman to discuss the targeted killing White Paper that was leaked to NBC news in February 2013. 

As Jaffer observes, the paper is a "briefing document; it is not a legal memo….The actual memos are still secret," despite the ACLU's litigation to try to free them, he says.

The ACLU is pursuing a number of lawsuits against the government related to its targeted killings, challenging both the hitherto impenetrable secrecy regime shrouding the program and the legality of the killings.

One of those cases is a constitutional case on behalf of three American citizens killed by US strikes, which argues that the government doesn't have the authority to kill citizens absent due process of law. The government's response to the lawsuit has not focused on the merits of whether or not these killings are lawful. Instead, the government has argued that the courts should have no role in deciding who the executive branch kills or under what circumstances.