Washington ? The Supreme Court said Monday it would settle a fight stemming from Vice President Dick Cheney’s contacts with the energy industry as the Bush administration drafted its energy policy.

The court agreed to hear an appeal from the administration, which is fighting a lawsuit brought by watchdog and environmental groups over the energy task force Cheney assembled. The panel met for several months in 2001 and issued a report that favored opening more public lands to oil and gas drilling and proposed a range of other steps supported by industry.

The lawsuit seeks to force the administration to provide details about the panel’s records and inner workings. The suit alleged that former Enron chief Kenneth Lay, former lobbyist Haley Barbour and other outsiders regularly sat in on the meetings and functioned as members of the task force.

The White House has acknowledged contacts with Lay, but insists that the task force was entirely made up of government officials.

The watchdog group Judicial Watch and an environmental organization, the Sierra Club, had won permission from a lower court to gather records related to the energy task force.

Judicial Watch sued in July 2001, seeking names of task force participants, details of the group’s workings and information about Cheney’s involvement. The Sierra Club sued later for similar information, and the lawsuits were joined.

“We’re hoping at the end of this process the court is going to remind the vice president that he’s not above the law,” said Sierra Club lawyer David Bookbinder. “That’s the claim he’s been making throughout this process, that he is simply immune from any inquiry into his activities.”

The administration argues that the constitutional need for the president to receive candid advice demands confidentiality. If the lawsuit is successful, the administration says people may be unwilling to talk for fear the comments will become public.

Moreover, the administration said turning over the documents would mark a dangerous erosion of presidential power.