On Jan. 5, Vice President Dick Cheney, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, one of Scalia’s sons and his son-in-law flew on an Air Force II Gulfstream jet to Amelia, La., for several days of duck hunting. A month before the trip, the Supreme Court had agreed to hear the vice president’s appeal in Cheney v. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (known as the Energy Task Force case).
The Air Force II flight was provided without charge to Scalia and his family members — who returned via commercial airline — and the food, lodgings and hunting facility were provided by a friend of Scalia’s, Wallace Carline, owner of an oil exploration service company. For Scalia, this was an annual trip he had taken for about five years, and he invited the vice president for this year’s hunt. The hunting and fishing lasted for almost five days; Cheney participated for a little more than two days.
