Cheney Energy Task Force Suit to Proceed

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 of Appeals for the District of Columbia 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. 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 -- the 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.

What will happen next is unclear. The Justice Department, which is representing Cheney and the task force, could request that the case be heard by the full panel of the appeals court, or it could try to bring the case before the Supreme Court.