CHENEY TAKES ANOTHER HIT...maybe by 2004! we might SEE THE DAMN PAPERS!
U.S. Appeals Court Rejects Cheney Energy Bid
By Susan Cornwell
Reuters
Thursday 11 September 2003
WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court on Thursday refused to reconsider its ruling against Vice
President Cheney in his effort to keep secret the documents of his energy task force.
The U.S. Court of Appeals voted 5-3 against rehearing the case, leaving Cheney and his Justice
Department lawyers with the option of either appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court or complying with a
lower court order to release information about White House contacts with the energy industry.
"We're going to review it and make a determination what our next step will be," a Justice Department
spokeswoman said of the ruling.
One of the groups suing for the information, Judicial Watch, said it hoped the White House would
now produce the sought-after list of its contacts with the energy industry while the task force was
writing energy policy in 2001.
"People deserve to have all the facts, to prevent future energy problems like the recent blackout,"
Judicial Watch's general counsel Larry Klayman said.
"They (the Bush administration) are going to be held accountable if they continue to obstruct, and we
have other problems with our energy grid."
A three-judge panel of the appeals court had decided in July that it would not intervene to stop the
lawsuit delving into Cheney's energy contacts.
But in August lawyers at the Justice Department asked the full appeals court to reconsider the case,
arguing that it presented important separation of powers questions.
In its one-paragraph refusal on Thursday, the appeals court gave no reasons for its decision.
Judicial Watch and the environmental group Sierra Club allege that as he drafted energy policy,
Cheney consulted with industry executives such as former Enron Corp <ENRNQ.PK>. chief Ken Lay
and left environmentalists out in the cold.
Cheney has acknowedged meeting Lay, but his lawyers argue that the task force was comprised of
government officials, not corporate chieftains. The Bush administration has released thousands of
pages of information from agencies involved in drafting the energy policy, but none from the White
House.
Cheney was chief executive of energy and construction company Halliburton Co (nyse: HAL - news -
people). from 1995 to 2000. His task force called for more oil and gas drilling and a revived nuclear
power program.
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