USPTO refuses to disclose Bilski's pending patent application

The US Supreme Court will soon hear Bilski on why software and business method patents are so good/harmful for the US economy. I was trying to find out on Google and other search engines where was the Bilski's pending patent application, and I end up writing to the new USPTO President and ex-IBM David Kappos. I finally got an answer from a USPTO official that the Bilski's pending patent application cannot be seen by the public:

Bahr, Robert <vog.otpsu|rhaB.treboR#vog.otpsu|rhaB.treboR>
to gro.iiff|noirnehb#gro.iiff|noirnehb
date Mon, Jun 22, 2009 at 12:31 PM
subject Copy of the Bilski pending patent application

Dear Mr. Henrion,

I understand that you have a question as to why the USPTO's administrative file of the Bilski application is not available to the public. The application at issue in Bilski is not a published or patented application, and thus must be maintained in confidence under 35 USC 122(a). The Bilski application was the subject of an appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Federal Circuit), and the relevant portions of the USPTO's administrative file of the Bilski application was filed with the Federal Circuit during this appeal. These portions of the USPTO's administrative file of the Bilski application are part of the Federal Circuit's records, and any member of the public may inspect the Federal Circuit's records. The USPTO's administrative file for the Bilski application, however, is not open to public inspection. This is explained at MPEP 1216.01.

I hope you find this information useful

Regards,

Robert W. Bahr
Senior Patent Counsel
Office of the Deputy Commissioner
for Patent Examination Policy

For those who wants to submit an Amicus Brief to the US Supreme Court, this is nearly mission impossible without the pending patent application. Some blog mention claim 1, but this is not enough to understand what the patent is about:

1. A method for managing the consumption risk costs of a commodity sold by a commodity provider at a fixed price comprising the steps of: (a) initiating a series of transactions between said commodity provider and consumers of said commodity wherein said consumers purchase said commodity at a fixed rate based upon historical averages, said fixed rate correspoding to a risk postion of said consumer; (b) identifying … (c) initiating a series of transactions between said commodity provider and…