Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[thepennyking]

High court asked to keep Cheney records secret

By The Associated Press
10.01.03
WASHINGTON — Records of Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force should remain confidential, the Bush administration told the Supreme Court yesterday, arguing that demands for disclosure present serious constitutional issues.

In a 25-page filing, the Justice Department’s solicitor general urged the Supreme Court to consider “fundamental separation-of-powers questions” raised by a federal judge who says the Cheney panel should produce information about its operations.

The conservative Judicial Watch and an environmental organization, the Sierra Club, have filed suit, alleging that corporate executives and company lobbyists in effect became members of the Cheney panel that formulated the Bush administration’s energy policy in 2001.

The administration says the “unsupported allegation” in the lawsuit is contradicted by the president’s order creating the task force composed of members of his Cabinet.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan has ordered the administration to produce some documents in order to assess the accusations in the lawsuits.

The Justice Department papers said that the judge has engaged in a “wholesale expansion” of federal law.

“Legislative power and judicial power cannot extend to compelling the vice president to disclose ... the details of the process by which a president obtains information and advice from the vice president,” Solicitor General Theodore Olson argued.

The Justice Department also said a federal appeals court erred in its handling of the Bush administration’s arguments. The appeals court concluded that bringing the case to a higher court was premature.

But the Justice Department argued otherwise, saying that the demands for documents impose the same result as if the case had already been concluded with a final ruling against the Bush administration.

The lower court judge is imposing “problematic disclosure requirements” based “upon mere allegations,” said the solicitor general.

“Far from rendering separation-of-powers problems premature,” the demand for documents “only exacerbates them,” said the court papers.

The administration has lost two rounds in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, where a three-judge panel ruled 2-1 against Cheney, followed by the refusal of the full appeals court to consider the issue.

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.

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=12007