The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously found that the Sierra Club and Judicial Watch had failed to establish that Cheney’s controversial energy task force was a federal advisory committee with a duty to publicly disclose its operations, the Associated Press reported May 10.
“There is nothing to indicate that nonfederal employees had a right to vote on committee matters or exercise a veto over committee proposals,” Judge A. Raymond Randolph wrote in the opinion. Even “influential participation” in meetings by outsiders would not effectively make them members of the committee, the court said.
Four library groups had filed an amicus brief in the lawsuit, which alleged that energy-industry executives and lobbyists effectively became members of the task force, and that environmental groups had been shut out of meetings.
Posted May 13, 2005.