On December 6, 2002, a federal appeals court issued a two-page order indefinitely delaying the December 9, 2002, deadline for the White House to produce documents on Vice President Cheney’s energy task force. The order stated that the court will schedule a date for arguments on whether to step into the case and consider the administration's request to put a halt to producing documents and providing testimony. The law suit brought by Judicial Watch and the Sierra Club has demanded that the task force reveal documents about its meetings with industry representatives and lobbyists in formulating an energy plan that calls for expanded oil and gas drilling on public land and easing regulatory barriers to building nuclear power plants. The groups allege that the administration improperly met with private energy industry officials and largely excluded environmental groups while forming the country's energy policy. This represents a reversal of a very recent court ruling that the administration could not appeal the order to produce documents since the case had not been settled. For more see this previous Watcher article. In a related case in which the General Accounting Office (GAO) -- the investigative arm of Congress -- sued Vice President Cheney for information about meetings held between Cheney's energy task force and industry representatives, Bush-appointed U.S. District Judge John Bates ruled in favor of Vice President Cheney and dismissed the GAO's suit, opining that "no court has ever before granted what the comptroller general [of GAO] seeks," as reported in this Washington Post article.