The privately held company, whose owners Charles and David Koch have funded conservative organizations, holds private conferences with business and political leaders and commentators to strategize about countering “the most critical threats to our free society,” according to one brochure revealed last year at the Think Progress Web site.
The brochure, which was promoting this year’s conference scheduled for next week, boasted that Scalia and Thomas had attended prior retreats. Today, Common Cause lawyer Arn Pearson said research has revealed that Scalia attended a 2007 Koch conference and Thomas went in 2008, both apparently in the Palm Springs, California area. Pearson said the justices’ financial disclosure reports for those years did not disclose any travel or lodging reimbursements by Koch. But both Scalia and Thomas indicated they were reimbursed for trips to California by the conservative Federalist Society around the dates when the Koch retreats may have occurred, Pearson stated.
