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Hotel Booking While Dick Cheney asserts that the details of his meetings and communications with energy company executives are exempt from disclosure (Inquirer, Feb. 3), he and President Bush should keep in mind that this issue was already decided by the Supreme Court in 1974. This quotation from the United States v. Nixon should make the point:

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear an appeal by Vice President Dick Cheney of lower court rulings that could open the door to taxpayers knowing what industry representatives told his energy task force. This is a step that shouldn't be necessary, either from a legal standpoint or in terms of the Bush administration's interests. What is it all about There has been a suspicion that the task force that helped devise the administration's energy policy was helped along by officials from Enron and other energy companies that might have profited from the policy the task force recommended. This suspicion is augmented by Cheney's resolutely fighting in the courts to keep the slightest word on the matter from getting out.

Travel Agency "Neither the doctrine of separation of powers, nor the need for confidentiality of high-level communications, without more, can sustain an absolute, unqualified presidential privilege of immunity from judicial process under all circumstances ... Absent a claim of need to protect military, diplomatic or sensitive national security interests, we find it difficult to accept the argument that even the very important interest in confidentiality of presidential communications is significantly diminished by production of such material."

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 Dick Cheney's energy task force. 1 ruling, the court said administration officials must turn over some information about the task force or list specific documents 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.

Cheap Hotel Meetings relating to U.S. energy policy do not in any way implicate "military, diplomatic or sensitive national security interests." Bush and Cheney are fighting a losing battle. They should both know better.

The suit filed by Judicial Watch, and later joined by the environmental group Sierra Club, seeks all records of the Cheney task force in an effort to find out what influence energy companies, bankrupt Enron Corp., had on policy.

Flight Booking Wayne A. Ely
Bensalem, PA

Three weeks before the trip, the court agreed to hear an appeal of a case in which the Sierra Club sought information about who had participated in private meetings of Mr. Cheney's energy task force in 2001. Justice Scalia's decision to go hunting with someone who had litigation pending before the court prompted editorial pages across the country to echo the Sierra Club's belief that the public might believe he could not render an impartial ruling.

Travel Agent Philadelphia Inquirer - 2/8/2002

Topic: White House

A white paper produced last year by Vice President Cheney's energy task force declared that expanded nuclear power production was "a major component of our national energy policy." It said there was room at many nuclear facilities for additional reactors.

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