WASHINGTON (AP) — On the eve of a critical Senate vote and under court order, the Obama administration signaled it will publicly reveal a secret memo describing its legal justification for using drones to kill U.S. citizens suspected of terrorism overseas. 
 
 Two administration officials told The Associated Press that the Justice Department has decided not to appeal a Court of Appeals ruling requiring disclosure of a redacted version of the memo under the Freedom of Information Act. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. 
 
 The decision to release the documents comes as the Senate is to vote Wednesday on advancing President Barack Obama's nomination of the memo's author, Harvard professor and former Justice Department official David Barron, to sit on the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., had vowed to fight Barron's confirmation, and some Democratic senators were calling for the memo's public release before a final vote. 
 
 Wednesday's expected procedural vote would allow the Senate to move ahead with a final vote on Barron on Thursday. "I think we'll be OK," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said earlier Tuesday. 
 
 Anwar al-Awlaki, an al-Qaida leader born in the United States, was killed after being targeted by a drone strike in Yemen in September 2011. Some legal scholars and human rights activists complained that it was illegal for the U.S. to kill American citizens away from the battlefield without a trial. 
 
 Some senators, including those in Obama's own party, have called for the public release of the memo before the final confirmation vote. The White House agreed under the pressure to show senators unredacted copies of all written legal advice written by Barron regarding the potential use of lethal force against U.S. citizens in counterterrorism operations. 
 
 Until now, the administration has fought in court to keep the writings from public view. But administration officials said that Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. decided this week not appeal an April 21 ruling requiring disclosure by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York and that Attorney General Eric Holder concurred with his opinion. 
 
 The release could take some time, since the redactions are subject to court approval. And the administration also is insisting that a classified ruling on the case also be redacted to protect information classified for national security, but not the legal reasoning, one of the officials said. 
 
 The drone strike that killed al-Awlaki also killed another U.S. citizen, Samir Khan, an al-Qaida propagandist. Al-Awlaki's 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman, was killed the following month in another drone attack. 
 
 The American Civil Liberties Union and two reporters for The New York Times, Charlie Savage and Scott Shane, filed a FOIA suit. In January 2013, U.S. District Court Judge Colleen McMahon ruled that she had no authority to order the documents disclosed, although she chided the Obama administration for refusing to release them. 
 
 But a three-judge appeals court panel noted that after McMahon ruled, senior government officials spoke about the subject. The panel rejected the government's claim that the court could not consider official disclosures made after McMahon's ruling, including a 16-page Justice Department white paper on the subject and public comments by Obama in May in which he acknowledged his role in the al-Awlaki killing, saying he had "authorized the strike that took him out." 
 
 The ACLU urged senators in a letter Tuesday not to move forward on the confirmation vote until they have a chance to see any Barron memos on the administration's drone program, not just those involving U.S. citizens. 
 
 Paul issued a statement Tuesday saying he still opposes Barron's nomination. "I rise today to say that there is no legal precedent for killing American citizens not directly involved in combat and that any nominee who rubber stamps and grants such power to a president is not worthy of being placed one step away from the Supreme Court," Paul said in remarks prepared for delivery on the Senate floor Wednesday provided by his office. 
 
 Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., has been pushing for public disclosure of Barron's writings and was one of several Democrats who had been refusing to say whether he'd vote for confirmation without it. "That's certainly very constructive," Wyden said when told of the decision not to appeal. 
 
 The administration's decision won over at least one senator, Mark Udall, D-Colo., who had been opposed to Barron because of the memo's secrecy. "This is a welcome development for government transparency and affirms that although the government does have the right to keep national security secrets, it does not get to have secret law," Udall said. 
 
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 Follow Nedra Pickler on Twitter at https://twitter.com/nedrapickler 
 
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 Associated Press writer Alan Fram contributed to this report. ||||| Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) signaled Tuesday that a controversial judicial nominee from the Obama administration is likely to win eventual confirmation from the Senate. 
 
 The nominee, David Barron, has drawn some criticism and scrutiny for his role in drafting a legal memo as a Justice Department official on the 2011 drone strike that killed Anwar al Awlaki. But Reid said Tuesday that “I think we’ll be OK” on the vote to break a filibuster on the Barron nomination, slated for Wednesday. 
 
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 “There were just some misunderstandings,” Reid said Tuesday. “Once everything was explained, I think — I don’t know if everybody — but certainly most everyone on our caucus is satisfied.” 
 
 Senate Democrats concerned about the Barron nomination were briefed by White House officials during a classified session last week at the Capitol. But the most vocal criticism has come from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who announced last week that he would filibuster the nomination after reading the classified memos written by Barron. 
 
 Those documents, Paul argued, gave no legal rationale for the strikes that killed al Awlaki, a U.S. citizen, without trial or legal representation. The potential 2016 Republican presidential contender added: “There is no valid legal precedent to justify the killing of an American citizen not engaged in combat.” 
 
 With the Senate rules changes last year, however, a filibuster threat such as Paul’s has significantly less impact. Democrats need just a simple majority — rather than 60 votes — to break a filibuster, and they control 55 votes. 
 
 It is unclear whether Paul will mount a talking filibuster or force the Senate to use all of the debate time on Barron’s nomination. Paul, who spoke for 12 hours during a debate on CIA Director John Brennan’s nomination in 2013, plans to take to the floor Wednesday to speak against Barron’s nomination. 
 
 In excerpts of his prepared floor remarks released Tuesday, Paul plans to say the legal memos written by Barron “disrespect the Bill of Rights” and he could not support the nomination of any official who “argues that the president has the power to kill Americans not involved in combat.” 
 
 “I rise today to say that there is no legal precedent for killing American citizens not directly involved in combat and that any nominee who rubber stamps and grants such power to a president is not worthy of being placed one step away from the Supreme Court,” Paul will say on Wednesday. 
 
 Barron, now a Harvard Law School professor, is nominated for a seat on the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals. 
 
 On another controversial judicial nominee — Michael Boggs in Georgia — Reid reiterated Tuesday that he is still opposed to the pick. 
 
 “My position hasn’t changed; I do not support him,” Reid said. ||||| Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) says he has the votes to confirm David Barron, the author of memos justifying drone strikes against American citizens, to the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals. 
 
 Reid said most of the members of the Senate Democratic Caucus were satisfied with the defense of Barron provided by White House lawyers at a private briefing last week. 
 
 “We’ll vote on the Barron filibuster, stopping that tomorrow. I think we’ll be OK,” Reid said at a Tuesday press conference. 
 
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 Reid needs a simple majority to quash a GOP filibuster of Barron that threatened to attract Democratic support. 
 
 Some Democrats had balked at Barron’s nomination because the Justice Department had refused to make public memos he had authored justifying the lethal drone strike against Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen living in Yemen who was suspected of terrorist ties. 
 
 The drone strike against al-Awlaki also killed Samir Khan, another American citizen, who published an online magazine promoting jihad. 
 
 The American Civil Liberties Union has weighed in strongly against Barron’s nomination and urged senators not to vote on him until it has researched his writings. 
 
 The White House has allowed senators to privately view his legal rationale for drone strikes against American citizens, but critics question whether lawmakers have been privy to all his relevant work. 
 
 Reid downplayed opposition to Barron within his own caucus as a “misunderstanding.” 
 
 “It was just some misunderstanding. Once everything was explained ... most everyone in our caucus was satisfied,” Reid told reporters. 
 
 Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), two critics of President Obama’s drone program, declined to say Tuesday whether they would vote for Barron. 
 
 Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), an outspoken critic of the nation’s drone policy, has led Senate opposition to the judicial nominee. 
 
 Democratic senators discussed Barron with White House counsel Kathy Ruemmler and Neil Eggleston, her successor, Thursday afternoon in the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility located in the Capitol Visitor Center.
– The Obama administration has decided to release a secret memo explaining its justification for killing American citizens in drone strikes overseas, sources tell the AP. The decision comes as the Senate prepares to vote on the nomination of the memo's author, David Barron, to the 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals. GOP Sen. Rand Paul has vowed to filibuster the nomination of the Harvard professor and former Justice Department official, and some Democratic senators have also called for the public release of the document. Paul plans to argue that Barron's memos "disrespect the Bill of Rights" and any official that "argues that the president has the power to kill Americans not involved in combat" is "not worthy of being placed one step away from the Supreme Court," according to prepared remarks released yesterday, Politico reports. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says he definitely has enough votes to confirm Barron, reports the Hill, which notes that Reid only needs a simple majority to quash Paul's filibuster. Democratic opposition to Barron "was just some misunderstanding," Reid told reporters. "Once everything was explained ... most everyone in our caucus was satisfied."