Darth "Secrecy" Cheney Appeals

White House Contests Post On Providing Visitor Logs
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/13/AR2006121301923.html
Thursday, December 14, 2006

The Bush administration asked an appeals court yesterday to overrule a federal judge and allow the White House to keep secret any records of visitors to Vice President Dick Cheney's residence and office.

To make the visitor records public would be an "unprecedented intrusion into the daily operations of the vice presidency," the Justice Department argued in a 57-page brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

"The Bush administration asked an appeals court yesterday to overrule a federal judge and allow the White House to keep secret any records of visitors to Vice President Dick Cheney's residence and office."

The government was responding to an October order, by U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina, to release two years of White House visitor logs to The Washington Post. The Post, researching the access that lobbyists and others had to the White House, sought Secret Service records for anyone visiting Cheney, his legal counsel, chief spokesman and other top aides and advisers.
In his ruling, Urbina questioned the government's primary argument against releasing the records: that the logs are protected by Cheney's right to executive privilege.

The government's response was twofold, focusing largely on the ownership of the records.