THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT'S BETTER CLASS OF CLIENTS:

Suit Against Cheney Task Force Dismissed (PETE YOST, 12/09/02, Associated Press)

A federal judge on Monday rebuffed congressional efforts to gather information about meetings that Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force held with industry executives and lobbyists while formulating the administration's energy plan.

U.S. District Judge John Bates said the lawsuit filed by Comptroller General David Walker against the vice president was an unprecedented act that raised serious separation-of-powers issues between the executive and legislative branches of government.

"No court has ever before granted what the comptroller general seeks," wrote Bates, an appointee of President Bush.

The judge said that the comptroller general, who runs the General Accounting Office, "does not have the personal, concrete and particularized injury required" under the Constitution and that "his complaint must be dismissed."

Remember how all the claims of privilege that Bill Clinton made and lost were going to seriously damage the presidency forever? Turns out, as long as the claim isn't a specious attempt to cover up illegality you can actually win. Posted by Orrin Judd at December 9, 2002 4:04 PM