Appeals court refuses to stop Cheney suit

Sometimes the good guys win, part II:

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.

The courts stopped a similar suit spurred by the GAO -- Congress' investigative arm. But this suit, pushed by the conservative group Judicial Watch and the Sierra Club, has now been greenlighted. The administration will be forced to surrender thousands of documents pertaining to the Energy Task Force -- documents they are trying to hide at all costs.

This is obviously not over. The Administration will appeal to the Supreme Court. Then they will ask for an emergency stay of the Appeals Court order to halt the suit's discovery process. The court could grant Cheney and his energy cabal a reprieve until the Justices can hear the case next term, pushing off any resolution until next Summer.

Then they can use all sorts of delaying tactics to hold off on releasing anything truly damaging until just after the November elections.

Lovely, isn't it?

Or, the Supreme Court can simply refuse a temporary stay. Or refuse take the case letting the appeals court decision stand.

If I were Cheney, I'd release everything now. It would all get lost in the noise about WMDs, and be long forgotten by the 2004 elections.

Posted July 08, 2003 12:37 PM | Comments (22)