WASHINGTON – Vice President Cheney doesn’t have to disclose the advice his energy task force got from the industry, an appeals court ruled yesterday in what was probably a final blow to a politically charged lawsuit over public access to White House decision-making.

The task force met in 2001 and produced pro-industry recommendations for sweeping energy legislation now before Congress. The Bush administration fought hard to keep the panel’s workings secret, arguing that public disclosure would make it difficult for any White House to solicit candid advice on important policy issues.

Once seen as a potentially huge political liability for the Bush administration, the task force lawsuit ended up being more Washington political theater, with cameo appearances by Supreme Court Justice Scalia and a former Enron Corporation chairman, Ken Lay.

The two private groups that sued failed to establish that the government had a legal duty to produce documents detailing the White House’s industry contacts, the court said in an 8-0 decision.

The Sierra Club and Judicial Watch alleged that energy executives and lobbyists effectively became members of the task force, while environmental groups and others were shut out of the meetings. Outside participation made the task force a federal advisory committee with an obligation to disclose its operations, the groups argued, a position the court rejected.

“The outsider might make an important presentation, he might be persuasive, the information he provides might affect the committee’s judgment,” U.S. Appeals Court Judge A. Raymond Randolph wrote. “But having neither a vote nor a veto over the advice the committee renders to the president, he is no more a member of the committee than the aides who accompany congressmen or Cabinet officers to committee meetings.”

In a statement, Mr. Cheney’s office said the court guarded the confidentiality of internal deliberations and that the Constitution protects such deliberations as essential to informed decision-making.

A senior attorney at the Sierra Club, David Bookbinder, said the decision “is not going to be helpful in assuring open and accountable government.”

The appeals court directed U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan to dismiss the case. Judge Sullivan earlier had ordered the White House to produce some documents.

The Sierra Club and Judicial Watch could ask the appeals court to reconsider or could ask the Supreme Court to take the case, as it did once before. Either option would be considered a long shot.

Mr. Cheney’s task force issued a report that favored expanding oil and gas drilling on public land, rejuvenating nuclear power, and lifting the ban on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. The focus of the lawsuit: several thousand task-force e-mail messages and 12 boxes of documents.

Justice Scalia took a hunting trip with Mr. Cheney while the Supreme Court was considering an appeal of the lawsuit. Justice Scalia then issued a forceful defense rejecting calls for him to step aside and let the other eight justices rule.