The U.S. Government Is Being Sued…for Murder

The case, filed in civil court in Massachusetts and asking for compensation, was brought by the families of the two men, and alleges the U.S. violated maritime and admiralty law. The suit says the two men were returning to Las Cuevas, Trinidad, on a small boat after they had been fishing and working on farms in Venezuela. The families say it was struck by a U.S. missile killing six people on board. 

The families suing the government base their case on two federal laws having to do with the wrongful actions that occur on the oceans—one called the Death on the High Seas Act (DOHSA), and a second called the Alien Tort Statute. (A third law gives the U.S. district court jurisdiction in general admiralty law, which is codified into federal statutes.) DOHSA was enacted by Congress more than 100 years ago and allows close relatives to sue the U.S. government for a wrongful death occurring beyond three miles from the U.S. shore.  

The suit alleges that the killings were wrongful because there was no armed conflict or an imminent threat of death or injury posed by the two men in the boat and there were means other than lethal force that could have been used against any possible threat they might have posed. There has never been any evidence released showing that the two men were engaged in criminal activity.  The suit notes that officials in Trinidad have stated publicly that they have no information linking them to illegal conduct. The families also allege that customary international law prohibits these types of killings, which makes the U.S. government liable according to the Alien Tort Statute.  

The administration has carried out these boat strikes without any authorization from Congress declaring war. The U.S. government claims that its attacks on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific are lawful and has referenced a memo by the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), a part of the Department of Justice that provides legal advice to the president and the executive branch.

In the past, the OLC has been a guardrail on the executive branch determining the legality of policies. Since Trump’s second term began, that role has changed. The government has never made the memo from OLC public. The American Civil Liberties Union has sued to obtain its release. 

On Friday, January 30, the governors of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada met with Burgum in Washington, DC.  California governor Gavin Newsom had a personal commitment and sent the head of the state’s Natural Resources Agency. Before the meeting, the states had been working with no success to agree on new rules about who should give up more water as the Basin becomes drier. The current rules expire at the end of this year and the federal government has published four alternatives to solve the shrinking supply issue that affects 40 million people and agriculture for the entire country.

Although the meeting did not end with an agreement, there was some optimism. Colorado governor Jared Polis said in a statement that the discussions were productive and reflected the seriousness of the moment. He said he remains committed to working collaboratively to find solutions that protect the vitality of the Colorado River and everyone who depends on it.  

Governor Katie Hobbs of Arizona said on social media that she was encouraged to hear Upper Basin governors express a willingness to turn water conservation programs into firm commitments and that she looked forward to continued discussions. Colorado Public Radio reports that a source who is familiar with the discussions said that six of the states are close to agreeing on a framework, with Arizona as the outlier.

If the states cannot agree, the Department of the Interior has threatened to take over management of the river, which some say could lead to years of litigation.

Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, and key architect of Project 2025, Russell Vought, dismissed NCAR as “one of the largest sources of “climate alarmism” in the country. So, as the Baptist News Global opines, “Trump has decided one way to fight alarmism is to halt funding of research that produces alarming results.” 

On January 27, the National Science Foundation, which funds NCAR, took the next steps toward dismantling the center, releasing a "Dear Colleague Letter" (DCL) requesting “transformative and creative concepts” on how to reassign NCAR’s capabilities to other agencies—and asking whether to transfer ownership of its iconic Mesa Lab building (designed by Ieoh Ming Pei) to “private use.”

As EOS, the science news magazine published by American Geophysical Union (AGU), explains, NCAR is not just another research center. It is designed to integrate observations, modeling, supercomputing, and applied research in ways that no single university, agency, or contractor could replicate on its own. 

So, what’s at stake if NCAR is broken up? Here are just a few consequences:

Airline Travel: Turbulence is one of the leading cause of injuries on U.S. commercial flights, and NCAR researchers helped improve how to detect and avoid it. Additionally, NCAR-developed deicing products are staples at U.S. airports, and their Low-Level Wind Shear Alert System has helped to make microburst-related plane crashes a thing of the past. Dismantling NCAR could break the integrated system that makes aviation safety research effective.

Weather and Disaster Preparedness: NCAR was created to respond to challenges in meteorology and atmospheric science during and after World War II. Since then, NCAR has made ground-breaking advances in weather, water, and climate science, including its Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF), a state-of-the-art atmospheric modeling system that provides crucial insights on severe storms, flash floods, drought, air quality, wildfires, climate, and solar energy prediction. NCAR-developed instrumentation collects real-time hurricane observations to help predict storm intensities and flood risks.

Public Health: Many global disease threats are related to weather and climate. NCAR scientists developed tools to track mosquitoes, whose populations could carry deadly viruses. They’ve also developed models that can predict and assess wildfire smoke, volcanic ash, and other types of hazardous aerosols in the atmosphere, which could affect public health.

Technology: NCAR was also an early leader in the development of light detection and ranging technology or LIDAR used by numerous industries to create high resolution maps above and below ground for use in forestry and agriculture to archeology. NCAR also manages the Mauna Loa Solar Observatory to monitor space weather, which could disrupt GPS and other communication technologies. NCAR is training future generations of the STEM workforce, learning about supercomputing, modeling, software engineering, data visualization, and much more.

Representative Joe Neguese whose district includes Boulder, is encouraging the public to email their thoughts about NCAR’s future to: NSF_NCAR@nsf.gov. The deadline to comment is March 13, 2026.