The Supreme Court won't hear an appeal from a civil liberties group that wants to make public an internal Justice Department memo that allows the FBI to informally obtain phone records.

The justices on Tuesday let stand an appeals court ruling that said the Justice Department could refuse to release the 2010 memo under an exception to the Freedom of Information Act.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation argued that the public has a right to see how the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel authorized the FBI to access phone call records from telephone companies for terrorism investigations.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the memo was part of the government's internal deliberations and therefore exempt from disclosure.