Court Allows Suit on Cheney Energy Panel

WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court dealt a setback to the Bush administration Tuesday, refusing to stop a lawsuit delving into Vice President Dick Cheney's contacts with the energy industry as his task force was drafting the White House's energy policy.

In a 2-1 ruling, the court rejected the government's arguments that the lawsuit would be an unconstitutional intrusion on the operations of the executive office of the president.

Cheney and administration officials "have not satisfied the heavy burden" required for the appeals court to get involved in the case, wrote appeals judge David Tatel. Appeals judge Harry Edwards concurred in a separate opinion. The lawsuit had been proceeding in a lower court.

Drafted in 2001, the administration's energy plan favors opening more public lands to oil and gas drilling and proposes a wide range of other steps supported by industry. It followed months of discussions by task force members and staff with business executives and lobbyists from the energy sector.

The groups that are suing — Sierra Club and the conservative Judicial Watch — allege that participants from industry effectively became members of the task force in assembling the White House's energy policy. The administration says the makeup of the task force was limited to government officials.

Bush administration officials have not even produced a summary of documents they want to keep confidential, the appeals court said.

If the administration is so concerned about unwarranted intrusion, it can "invoke executive or any other privilege" in an attempt to keep the material out of the public domain, Tatel wrote.

Judge A. Raymond Randolph dissented, declaring that "for the judiciary to permit this sort of discovery" into the actions of the vice president and other Cabinet-level appointees "strikes me as a violation of the separation of powers."

Federal agencies have disclosed 39,000 pages of internal documents related to the work of Cheney's energy task force, which itself has turned over no materials.

"We look forward to finally gaining access to the inner workings of the energy task force," said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch.

Tatel did agree with the Bush administration on one point, saying the request for information by Judicial Watch and the Sierra Club "goes well beyond what they need." The two advocacy groups are trying to show that non-federal officials participated to the extent that they were effectively members of Cheney's task force.

The Justice Department said it was considering "how best to proceed in the courts to protect the effective functioning of the executive branch."

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FYI:

Judge Tatel was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals in October 1994. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1963 and the University of Chicago Law School in 1966. Following law school, he taught for a year at the University of Michigan Law School and then went into private practice with the firm of Sidley & Austin in Chicago. From 1969 to 1970, he served as Director of the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, then returned to Sidley & Austin until 1972, when he became Director of the National Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in Washington, D.C. From 1974 to 1977, he returned to private practice as associate and partner with Hogan & Hartson, where he headed the firm's Community Services Department. He also served as General Counsel for the newly created Legal Services Corporation from 1975 to 1976. In 1977, Judge Tatel became the Director of the Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. He returned to Hogan & Hartson in 1979, where he headed the firm's education group until his appointment to the D.C. Circuit.

Judge Edwards was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals in February 1980 and served as Chief Judge from September 15, 1994, until July 15, 2001. He graduated from Cornell University in 1962 and the University of Michigan Law School in 1965. Judge Edwards practiced law in Chicago from 1965 to 1970. He was then a tenured member of the faculties at the University of Michigan Law School, where he taught from 1970 to 1975 and 1977 to 1980, and at Harvard Law School, where he taught from 1975 to 1977. He also taught at the Harvard Institute for Educational Management between 1976 and 1982. He served as a member and then Chairman of the Board of Directors of AMTRAK from 1978 to 1980, and also served as a neutral labor arbitrator under a number of major collective bargaining agreements during the 1970s. Judge Edwards has co-authored four books and published scores of law review articles on labor law, higher education law, federal courts, legal education, professionalism, and judicial administration. Since joining the court, he has taught law at Harvard, Michigan, Duke, Pennsylvania, Georgetown, and, most recently, NYU Law School.

http://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/court_offices/judges/judges.asp

I've come to despise him too. Why shouldn't we have as much secrecy as possible? After all, the public has no right to know what is being cooked up in secret affairs behind their back. They(the public) just have to pay if the fix is in.

You cant' run a fascist government with the public being let in on everything. How can you expect a president to run for reelection when he can't collect boo-coos of money from his pals that receive special favors in secret meetings? He has to have their campaign contributions. you know. Mum is the word, keep everything as secret as possible as the public has no right to know.

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