daniel j. lavigne

Court Allows Suit on Cheney Energy Panel (washingtonpost.com)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26380-2003Jul8.html

By PETE YOST
The Associated Press
Tuesday, July 8, 2003; 11:33 AM

WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court Tuesday rejected the Bush
administration's bid to stop a lawsuit that seeks to delve into the energy
industry's ties to Vice President **** Cheney's energy task force.
In a 2-1 ruling, the court said administration officials must turn over some
information about the task force or list specific do***ents that they intend
to withhold from the proceedings.
The administration argues that the lawsuit by the Sierra Club and a
conservative group, Judicial Watch, is an unwarranted intrusion into the
internal deliberations of the executive branch of government.
But Cheney and administration officials "have not satisfied the heavy


Bush administration officials have not even produced a log of do***ents they
want to keep confidential, the appeals court said.
Appeals judges David Tatel and Harry Edwards rejected the administration's
effort to stop the case. Judge A. Raymond Randolph dissented, declaring that
"for the judiciary to permit this sort of discovery" into the actions of the
executive branch "strikes me as a violation of the separation of powers."
Tatel said that 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.
Federal agencies have disclosed 39,000 pages of internal do***ents related
to the work of Cheney's energy task force, material which so far has yielded
nothing.
The energy plan adopted four months after President Bush took office favored
opening more public lands to oil and gas drilling and proposed a wide range
of other steps supported by industry.

© 2003 The Associated Press
***********************************************
Add your voice to reason's call. Join the Tax Refusal.
***********************************************
http://www.taxrefusal.com http://www.dieoff.com
***********************************************
"Never doubt that a small group of committed individuals can change
the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead