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Friday February 1 12:11 PM ET

Court Orders Cheney to Explain Constitutional Claim
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. District Court judge has ordered Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force to explain why handing over information about its meetings to a watchdog group would violate the Constitution, the group said on Friday.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered the energy task force to file its explanation in a brief with the court by next Tuesday, said Larry Klayman, chairman and general counsel of Judicial Watch, a public interest law firm suing the task force.

Judicial Watch filed suit last July against the National Energy Policy Development Group that was chaired by Cheney, demanding the administration release records on who the task force met and when, and minutes of the meetings held while formulating the White House's energy policy.

The General Accounting Office, Congress' investigative arm, said this week it also intended to file a lawsuit for the task force records, although the GAO has dropped its demands for minutes of the meetings. Among those whom the task force met were representatives of the failed energy-trading giant Enron Corp. .

The White House says releasing the records would damage the president's constitutional power to get candid advice. Sullivan, in an order handed down on Thursday and released by Judicial Watch, ordered the task force to explain ``in what way would allowing limited discovery into the ... specific types of information and documents violate Article II of the United States Constitution.''