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Scalia says trip with cheney wont effect rulings { March 19 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.indystar.com/articles/3/130661-7343-010.htmlhttp://www.indystar.com/articles/3/130661-7343-010.html
Scalia will not recuse self over duck hunt
Justice says trip with vice president won't sway his judgment in case involving Cheney.
By Gina Holland
Associated Press
March 19, 2004
WASHINGTON -- In typically combative style, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia dismissed a request Thursday that he stay out of a case involving his friend Vice President Dick Cheney, saying a duck hunting trip they took was acceptable socializing that wouldn't cloud his judgment.
"If it is reasonable to think that a Supreme Court justice can be bought so cheap, the nation is in deeper trouble than I had imagined," Scalia wrote in response to the Sierra Club's request that he disqualify himself.
The environmental organization is pursuing a lawsuit that seeks to compel the Bush administration to release information about closed-door meetings of Cheney's energy task force, which crafted the administration's energy policy. At issue are allegations that energy industry executives and lobbyists were in on the Cheney meetings while environmentalists were shut out. Cheney is a former energy executive.
In his 21-page statement, Scalia revealed for the first time details of his trip with Cheney to Louisiana, where the justice hunts each winter.
He said he was the go-between to invite Cheney to hunt with Scalia's friend Wallace Carline, who owns an oil rig services firm. Scalia and Cheney are friends from their days working in the Ford administration, the justice noted, and the trip plans were made before the energy case went before the court.
Scalia and Cheney flew together on a government jet, accompanied by one of Scalia's sons and a son-in-law. The justice said that he still bought a round-trip airline ticket, and "none of us saved a cent by flying on the vice president's plane."
The court agreed in December to hear the energy task force case, and three weeks later Scalia and Cheney flew to the hunting camp.
The trip spurred calls from some Democratic lawmakers and dozens of newspapers for Scalia to recuse himself.
Supreme Court justices, unlike judges on other courts, decide for themselves if they have conflicts, and their decisions are final.
The conservative Reagan administration appointee said that despite "embarrassing criticism and adverse publicity," he saw no reason to step aside because of the 48-hour excursion.
In Louisiana, Cheney, Scalia and the justice's two relatives joined nine other hunters, including Carline, Scalia said, "and it was not an intimate setting."
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