Attached to the appeals court ruling (starting on page 67) is a redacted version of a 2010 memo by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel that signed off on the effort to target Anwar Al-Awlaki, an American citizen deemed a terrorist, for killing without a trial. It was released in June 2014 as a result of Freedom of Information Act lawsuits brought by the New York Times and the American Civil Liberties Union. Awlaki was killed in a September 2011 drone strike in Yemen.

READ THE MEMO ON NYTIMES.COM