Scalia Mustn't Sit in Judgment of His Hunting Buddy: Newsday [View All]

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Scalia Mustn't Sit in Judgment of His Hunting Buddy

January 26, 2004
http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpsca263641977jan26,0,5682027.story?coll=ny-editorials-headlines


Antonin Scalia and Dick Cheney are hunting buddies. They went to Louisiana together a few weeks ago to shoot ducks. Ordinarily there would be nothing noteworthy about that. But Vice President Cheney is fighting in court to keep the records of his energy policy task force secret. And Scalia is a justice of the Supreme Court, which has agreed to hear the case.


Both Scalia's reputation and the court's credibility are on the line. He should recuse himself from the case. Such cozy fraternization between justice and litigant raises serious questions about his impartiality.

Two lower courts have ordered Cheney to turn over to the Sierra Club and Judicial Watch documents detailing who participated with the task force that crafted the White House's energy policy. Cheney appealed, and three weeks before the duck outing, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.

And who paid for the private jet that whisked Scalia to Louisiana? The Times said it was the owner of an oil services company. Scalia has been hopelessly compromised.