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(COMTEX) B: Scalia Defends Hunting Trip With Cheney ( AP Online )

WASHINGTON, Feb 11, 2004 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- Supreme Court Justice
Antonin Scalia strongly indicated he will ignore calls to recuse himself from a
court case involving his friend and hunting partner, Vice President Dick Cheney.

Scalia told a gathering at Amherst College on Tuesday night there was nothing
improper about his accompanying Cheney to Louisiana last month to hunt ducks.
The trip came three weeks after the Supreme Court agreed to hear the Bush
administration's appeal in a case involving private meetings of Cheney's energy
task force.

"It did not involve a lawsuit against Dick Cheney as a private individual,"
Scalia said in response to a question from the audience of about 600 people.
"This was a government issue. It's acceptable practice to socialize with
executive branch officials when there are not personal claims against them.
That's all I'm going to say for now. Quack, quack."

Cheney wants to keep private the details of closed-door White House strategy
sessions that produced the administration's energy policy. The administration is
fighting a lawsuit brought by watchdog and environmental groups that contend
that industry executives helped shape the administration's energy policy.

Democrats in Congress, some legal ethicists and dozens of newspaper editorials
have called on Scalia to stay out of the case. None of the groups in the case
has formally asked Scalia to recuse himself, though the Sierra Club has said it
might.

Supreme Court justices, unlike judges on other courts, decide for themselves if
they have conflicts, and their decisions are final.

Scalia had not publicly addressed the issue before his Tuesday speech in
Amherst, Mass., where about a dozen people wearing black armbands protested. One
held a sign that said "Let's go hunting."

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist had rebuffed Senate Democratic leaders last
month who questioned the trip, saying that justices strive to follow federal
laws that require judges to stay out of cases in which their impartiality might
be questioned.

Other justices have been asked about the Cheney appeal. In Hawaii on Tuesday,
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg would not say whether she thought Scalia should stay
out of the case. While Ginsburg is one of the more liberal members of the court,
she and the conservative Scalia are longtime friends.

Complimenting Scalia's hunting skills, Ginsburg told more than 300 people at a
Rotary Club of Honolulu luncheon that a deer killed by her colleague made for
mouthwatering venison served for New Year's, which the Scalias and Ginsburgs
typically spend together.

"Justice Scalia has been more successful at deer hunting than he has at duck
hunting," Ginsburg said to laughter.

---

Associated Press reporter Matt Sedensky in Honolulu contributed to this report.

On the Net:

Supreme Court: http:/www.supremecourtus.gov/

By GINA HOLLAND
Associated Press Writer

Copyright 2004 Associated Press, All rights reserved

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