Kevin Johnson and David Jackson

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department will not attempt to block a federal judge's order to publicly release a secret memo outlining the government's authority for using drones to kill U.S. citizens overseas who are suspected of terrorism, two administration officials said Tuesday.

The decision, outlined by the two officials who are not authorized to comment publicly, comes during a charged debate over the nomination of the memo's author, former Justice Department official David Barron, to a federal appeals court bench in Boston. A vote was scheduled for Wednesday.

Both officials said the decision not to appeal the April order was made this week by Solicitor General Donald Verrilli. Attorney General Eric Holder approved of the decision, and the White House was notified Tuesday.

Release of the memo could take some time to allow for requests for redactions and for the court's review of those modifications.

Barron's nomination has drawn fire from some lawmakers and the civil rights advocates who have called for a full review of the drone program and its justification before a vote on the nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit.

"The … opinions written or signed by Mr. Barron helped form the purported legal foundation for a large-scale killing program that has resulted in, as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) stated last year, as many as 4,700 deaths by drone attacks, including the deaths of four American citizens,'' the ACLU said in a Tuesday letter to senators urging them to review the documents.

Last year, Attorney General Eric Holder confirmed that four U.S. citizens had been killed in counterterrorism drone strikes since 2009.

At the time of his announcement, Holder said that radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who has been the inspiration for several plots against the United States, was the only American specifically targeted in the counterterrorism operations.

Three others — al-Qaeda propagandist Samir Khan; al-Awlaki's son, Addulrahman al-Awlaki; and Jude Kenan Mohammed — were killed during the same period.

Although Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has expressed confidence that Barron will win approval, others have vowed to oppose the Harvard professor because of his work on the drone program.

"I've read David Barron's memos concerning the legal justification for killing an American citizen overseas without trial or legal representation, and I am not satisfied,'' Rep. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said last week, promising to oppose and filibuster the nomination.