By PETE YOST
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal judge ruled Monday that Vice President Dick Cheney has broad discretion in determining what records created during his eight-year tenure must be preserved.

Absent any evidence that Cheney's office is failing to safeguard records, it is up to the vice president to determine how he deals with material, U.S. District Judge Hon. Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled.

"Congress drastically limited the scope of outside inquiries related to the vice president's handling of his own records during his term in office," the judge said in a 63-page opinion.

The Presidential Records Act "provides only narrow areas of oversight," the ruling added.

At issue is whether Cheney had impermissibly limited the scope of the Presidential Records Act, a post-Watergate law aimed at protecting White House records.

Cheney, who will be returning to his home state of Wyoming this week when his term ends, has taken the legal position that his office is not part of the executive branch of government, triggering a lawsuit by several groups including three organizations of historians and archivists concerned that the record of Cheney's time in office might not be adequately safeguarded.

Last summer, Cheney chief of staff David Addington told Congress the vice president belongs to neither the executive nor legislative branch of government, but rather is attached by the Constitution to Congress. The vice president presides over the Senate.

The lawsuit alleges that the Bush administration's actions over the past eight years call into question whether the White House will turn over to the National Archives a complete record of the activities of Cheney and his staff.

The ruling means that there is little room for the courts or the U.S. archivist to ensure that records are being protected.

"This is a huge loophole in the Presidential Records Act, and Congress needs to address it immediately," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a watchdog group that was one of the plaintiffs in the case.

CREW tried but failed to get permission from the judge to question Addington about Cheney's record-keeping practices.