Justice who duck-hunted with Cheney rejects impartiality allegation

UNITED States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia yesterday refused to remove himself from a case about Vice-President Dick Cheney’s energy task force and insisted that his impartiality could not be questioned, despite their recent duck-hunting trip.

"Since I do not believe my impartiality can reasonably be questioned, I do not think it would be proper for me to recuse," he said in a 21-page memorandum which was released by the high court.

The Sierra Club environmental group, which sued Cheney for the task force papers, had filed a motion asking that Scalia be disqualified from the case because the January trip had created an appearance of impropriety.