A federal appeals court ruled this morning that the White House does not have to make public internal documents examining the potential disappearance of e-mails during the Bush administration.

    In upholding a ruling last year by a federal judge, the appeals court found that the White House's Office of Administration is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

    The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The group filed a lawsuit in 2007 seeking to force the Office of Administration to comply with a FOIA request for documents related to the alleged sloppy retention of e-mails between 2001 and 2005, a period that included the Iraq war.

    The Office of Administration, which performs a variety of services for the Executive Office of the President, had complied with FOIA requests for years. But the office announced in 2007 that it no longer would process FOIA requests because officials did not believe the office was subject to the law. White House officials argued that the Office of Administration provides only administrative support and services to the president and his staff and does not exercise enough independent authority to fall under FOIA.

    A 1980 Supreme Court decision found that the FOIA law does not extend "to the President's immediate personal staff or units in the Executive Office [of the President] whose sole function is to advise and assist the President."

    The three-judge appeals panel this morning ruled that the Office of Administration's work "is directly related to the operational and administrative support of the work of the President" and his staff.

    Because the Office of Administration does not perform "tasks other than operational and administrative support for the President and his staff, we conclude that [it] lacks substantial independent authority and is therefore not an agency under FOIA," wrote Judge Thomas B. Griffith, who was joined in the 13-page opinion by Chief Judge David B. Sentelle and Judge A. Raymond Randolph.

    CREW's executive director, Melanie Sloan, said her organization was unlikely to appeal the ruling. But Sloan said CREW and other advocacy groups sent a letter recently to the Obama administration urging it have the Office of Administration comply with FOIA requests. She noted that the office had complied with the open records law for years.

    "Transparency and accountability start at home," she said.