Home > Cheney-Scalia Hunting Trip Revelations Detailed
Scalia Was Cheney Hunt Trip Guest;
Ethics Concern Grows
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The revelation cast further doubts about whether Scalia
can be impartial in Cheney’s upcoming case before the
Supreme Court.
By David G. Savage and Richard A. Serrano,
Times Staff Writers
PATTERSON, La. — Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia
traveled as an official guest of Vice President Dick
Cheney on a small government jet that served as Air
Force Two when the pair came here last month to hunt
ducks.
The revelation cast further doubts about whether Scalia
can be an impartial judge in Cheney’s upcoming case
before the Supreme Court, legal ethics experts said.
The hunting trip took place just weeks after the high
court agreed to take up Cheney’s bid to keep secret the
details of his energy policy task force.
According to those who met them at the small airstrip
here, the justice and the vice president flew from
Washington on Jan. 5 and were accompanied by a second,
backup Air Force jet that carried staff and security
aides to the vice president.
Two military Black Hawk helicopters were brought in and
hovered nearby as Cheney and Scalia were whisked away
in a heavily guarded motorcade to a secluded, private
hunting camp owned by an oil industry businessman.
The Times previously reported that the two men hunted
ducks together while the case was pending, but it
wasn’t clear then that they had traveled together or
that Scalia had accompanied Cheney on Air Force Two.
Several experts in legal ethics questioned whether
Scalia should decide the case.
"In my view, this further ratchets it up. If the vice
president is the source of generosity, it means Scalia
is accepting a gift of some value from a litigant in a
case before him," said New York University law
professor Stephen Gillers.
"It is not just a trip with a litigant. It’s a trip at
the expense of the litigant. This is an easy case for
stepping aside."
Aides to Cheney say the vice president, like the
president, is entitled to travel to vacation spots on
government jets and to take along guests at no cost.
"The vice president is on duty 24 hours, seven days a
week," said Kevin Kellems, a spokesman for Cheney. "His
security is important, and a certain number of people
must accompany him."
Judges are bound by different rules, however. Federal
law says that "any justice or judge shall disqualify
himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality
might be questioned."
When asked about the trip last month, Scalia confirmed
that he had gone duck hunting with Cheney, but said he
did not see a need to withdraw from the case.
"I do not think my impartiality could reasonably be
questioned," he said in a written response to The
Times. He said "social contacts" between justices and
high-level government officials have not been seen as
improper, even when those officials have cases in the
courts that concern "their official capacity, as
opposed to their personal capacity."
"I expect that all of the Justices were invited to the
Vice President’s annual Christmas Party. The invitation
was not improper, nor was the attendance," Scalia
wrote.
This week, the justice was asked whether he had
traveled to south Louisiana as Cheney’s guest or paid
for the trip. He refused to comment.
Two years ago, the Sierra Club and Judicial Watch sued
Cheney, seeking to learn whether the vice president and
his staff had met behind closed doors with lobbyists
and corporate officials from the oil, gas, coal and
electric power industries.
A judge ordered Cheney to turn over documents detailing
who met with his energy task force. Cheney appealed,
and in September, Bush administration lawyers asked the
Supreme Court to hear the case and reverse the judge’s
order.
It "would violate fundamental principles of separation
of powers" to force the president or the vice president
to disclose who they met with, said U.S. Solicitor Gen.
Theodore B. Olson.
After considering the appeal behind closed doors on
three occasions, the Supreme Court on Dec. 15 announced
that the case of "in re Richard B. Cheney" would be
heard in the spring.
It takes the votes of at least four justices to grant
review of a case, but the court does not disclose which
justices vote in favor of such appeals.
The hunting trip took place three weeks later.
Northwestern University law professor Steven Lubet said
a vacation trip with the vice president is not the same
as attending a Christmas party.
"This is certainly a level of hospitality that most
litigants are not able to extend to Supreme Court
justices," he said. "It also reinforces the perception
this was an exceptional event, not a run-of-the-mill
social event or a White House dinner."
The Washington legal director for the Sierra Club said
his group is considering filing a motion to ask Scalia
to withdraw from the case.
"On the face of it, that makes things worse," said the
Sierra Club’s David Bookbinder, referring to the
justice’s trip aboard an Air Force jet. "The fact that
the vice president is his host and, in effect, is
paying for his vacation puts it in an even more awkward
light for Justice Scalia."
The decision is likely to rest with Scalia himself. In
a response to a recent inquiry from two Senate
Democrats prompted by the hunting trip, Chief Justice
William H. Rehnquist said the high court does not have
a formal policy or rules for reviewing decisions by
justices on whether to withdraw from a case.
Gillers said he found Rehnquist’s response troubling as
well.
"This has exposed a gap in the ethics rules. This is a
federal law that applies to the justices, but in this
instance, Scalia is the judge of his own case. I would
think the full court has an interest in its
institutional reputation and would want to review a
decision like this."
In south Louisiana — the state bills itself as the
"Sportsman’s Paradise" — the Cheney-Scalia trip drew
the attention of local officials because of the unusual
security precautions.
Scalia had hunted ducks in the state’s southern marshes
several times before, and in November, Secret Service
agents visited the area to plan for a visit by the vice
president.
Ken Perry, who runs the Perry Flying Center at the
Harry P. Williams Airport, said Secret Service agents
were there in November to study security plans for the
upcoming trip. They returned for a second trip around
the Christmas holidays when the nation’s terror level
was raised to orange, or high, he said.
He and St. Mary Parish Sheriff David Naquin said that
on the morning of Jan. 5, a large security contingent
was in place — two Black Hawk air combat rescue
helicopters, a line of armored sport utility vehicles
and a ring of federal agents and sheriff’s deputies who
set up a security perimeter. The area was declared a
no-fly zone for other aircraft.
It was raining when the two blue-and-white jets, with
the U.S. flag on their tails and the fuselages clearly
marked "United States of America," appeared under the
clouds. Perry said the planes radioed that "Air Force
Two was on its approach." Perry said Cheney was among
the first to deplane, followed by Scalia and a young
woman who was identified to Perry as one of the
justice’s daughters.
Both Perry and Naquin said there were orders
prohibiting photographs of those who exited the planes
and climbed into the motorcade. But two days later,
Cheney returned to the airport without Scalia, and
photographs were allowed. Perry and Naquin said the
vice president happily posed with them for photos at
the Patterson airport.
Scalia stayed on to hunt for a few more days, the
sheriff said, but local officials said it was unclear
how he returned to Washington.
Perry said the planes were piloted by Air Force crews,
and he added that the Air Force paid $2,000 for fuel to
return to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.
Lt. Col. David Branham, a spokesman at the base, said
the 10- and 12-seat planes are assigned to the 89th
Airlift Wing there and are typically used for trips to
rural airports too small to handle larger aircraft.
"That’s part of the package for moving the president
and the vice president," he said.
The hunting camp is on private land and in a secluded
section of a bayou. According to several local hunters,
it includes a large floating camp where guests stay
overnight. During the day, hunters armed with shotguns
go out in small boats to duck blinds to position
themselves for shooting.
Scalia and the sheriff said the hunting was not good in
early January, probably because of inclement weather.
"It was terrible," Naquin said. "There were very few
ducks killed."
The camp is owned by Wallace Carline, the head of
Diamond Services Corp., an oil services firm that is on
41 acres of waterfront property in Amelia, La. The
company provides oil dredging, pile driving, salvage
work, fabrication, pipe-rolling capability and general
oilfield construction.
Carline, who founded the company 42 years ago, also
contributes money to local Republicans running for
office in Louisiana. He refused to comment on the visit
by Cheney and Scalia.
Carline’s secretary said he was in Mexico and had
nothing to say about the hunting trip. "He enjoyed the
visit," she said. "But it’s over with now. It’s old
news. He’s not going to talk to you."
Serrano reported from Patterson, La.,
and Savage reported from Washington.