WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- A lawyers' group that paid for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia to lecture at a conference said Scalia did nothing improper.
The Washington-based Federalist Society was responding to a report by ABC News that Scalia was lounging at a Colorado resort, not teaching.
The Rocky Mountain News reports Scalia missed the swearing-in ceremony of the new Chief Justice of the United States, John Roberts, on Sept. 29.
The Federalist Society said Scalia got to the Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Creek in Avon, Colo., late the night before the lecture and left early the day after it.
It said Scalia led a 10-hour course to more than 100 lawyers about the U.S. Constitution and the separation of powers and played less than two hours of tennis there.
Scalia did not get paid for the conference but was reimbursed by the group for travel and lodging.
The Federalist Society said the conference was planned nearly a year in advance.
Scalia called it "a commitment that I could not break."
The Supreme Court media office did not comment.
