--- title: Judge Tosses Case Against US Officials Over Drone Strikes description: A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit Friday against Obama administration officials over drone strikes in Yemen that killed U.S. citizens. canonical: https://time.com/50460/drone-lawsuit-dismissed-against-obama/ author: Noah Rayman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-04T23:19:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T07:09:11.647Z article:section: Politics og:title: Judge Tosses Case Against US Officials Over Drone Strikes og:description: A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit Friday against Obama administration officials over drone strikes in Yemen that killed U.S. citizens. og:url: https://time.com/50460/drone-lawsuit-dismissed-against-obama/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt189fa07954858249/6986890913c79f5f081916fd/163356010.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Predator Drone og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Judge Tosses Case Against US Officials Over Drone Strikes twitter:description: A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit Friday against Obama administration officials over drone strikes in Yemen that killed U.S. citizens. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt189fa07954858249/6986890913c79f5f081916fd/163356010.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Send in the Drones: Judge Tosses Case Against Obama Officials Over Deadly Strikes  by [Noah Rayman](/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Apr 4, 2014 11:19 PM CUT  Maintenence personel check a Predator drone on March 7, 2013 in Sierra Vista, Arizona. Maintenence personel check a Predator drone on March 7, 2013 in Sierra Vista, Arizona.John Moore—Getty Images  by [Noah Rayman](/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Apr 4, 2014 11:19 PM CUT A federal judge[ dismissed a lawsuit](http://www.bigstory.ap.org/article/judge-dismisses-lawsuit-over-drone-strikes "undefined") Friday against Obama administration officials that was brought by family members of U.S. citizens, including an al-Qaeda cleric, killed in drone attacks in Yemen. District Judge Rosemary Collyer raised questions over the killings without due process during oral arguments last July, but ultimately ruled that the plaintiffs could not bring a case against individual officials. The “defendants must be must be trusted and expected to act in accordance with the U.S. Constitution when they intentionally target a U.S. citizen abroad at the direction of the President and with the concurrence of Congress,” she wrote. “They cannot be held personally responsible in monetary damages for conducting war.” A drone strike in Sept. 2011 killed U.S.-born al-Qaida head Anwar al-Awlaki and propagandist Samir Khan, and another one killed al-Awlaki’s 16-year-old son a month later. The lawsuit was filed against then-Defense Scretary Leon Panetta, then CIA-director David Petraeus and two Special Operations commanders by the father of the elder al-Awlaki and the mother of Khan. \[[AP](http://www.bigstory.ap.org/article/judge-dismisses-lawsuit-over-drone-strikes "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/50460/drone-lawsuit-dismissed-against-obama/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/50460/drone-lawsuit-dismissed-against-obama/"},"headline":"Send in the Drones: Judge Tosses Case Against Obama Officials Over Deadly Strikes","datePublished":"2014-04-04T23:19:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T07:09:11.647Z","description":"A federal judge said that U.S. officials can't be \"held personally responsible in monetary damages for conducting war.\" The drone attacks in question killed U.S. citizens in Yemen, including an al-Qaeda cleric","url":"https://time.com/50460/drone-lawsuit-dismissed-against-obama/","keywords":["Law","Drones","Yemen"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt189fa07954858249/6986890913c79f5f081916fd/163356010.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Noah Rayman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt189fa07954858249/6986890913c79f5f081916fd/163356010.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Predator Drone","caption":"Predator Drone","creditText":"John Moore—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/law/","name":"Law"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/50460/drone-lawsuit-dismissed-against-obama/","name":"Send in the Drones: Judge Tosses Case Against Obama Officials Over Deadly Strikes"}}]}] ```