BANGOR – Maine U.S. District Judge D. Brock Hornby says he’s honored to have been chosen by Chief Justice William Rehnquist to be part of a six-member committee to study judicial ethics, but he is reserving opinion or comment until he knows more about his charge.

“When the chief justice asks you to do something, you do it,” Hornby said Thursday. “I was asked, I accepted, and that’s about all I know right now.”

Though Hornby says he doesn’t know what the exact task of the committee will be, the media are speculating that Rehnquist’s decision to form the panel stems from criticism that Justice Antonin Scalia should have recused himself from hearing a case that involves his longtime friend Vice President Dick Cheney.

The committee is expected to meet sometime in June.

Supreme Court justices decide for themselves whether they have conflicts of interest, and their decisions are final. The country’s highest court has come under criticism in the past few months after Scalia, considered a conservative on the court, refused to recuse himself from the case involving the energy policy of President Bush’s administration.

Scalia took a hunting trip in January with Cheney, just three weeks after the court agreed to hear the Bush administration’s appeal of a ruling that ordered public disclosure of details of an energy task force chaired by Cheney.

Scalia has said publicly that he never spoke to Cheney about the case while the two were on the hunting trip.

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer of New Hampshire will serve as chairman of the ethics panel. Hornby, who was named to the federal bench by the first president Bush, said Thursday that he has known Breyer for many years.

“There are rules that govern the judicial ethics of federal and appellate judges, but from what I understand, all of those same rules don’t apply to the U.S. Supreme Court,” Hornby said. “There are some differences, and I really don’t know if it is those differences that we are going to be looking at or not.”

Hornby, who originally sat in U.S. District Court in Bangor but now presides in Portland, said he did not know why he has been tapped to sit on the committee. He said, however, that he would look at it with an open mind.

“I first have to get there and find out what our charge is. Right now I’m not even sure of that,” he said.

Hornby said he was first contacted two weeks ago by Rehnquist’s assistant to see whether he would agree to be on the committee and then by Justice Breyer, who welcomed him aboard.

“Other than that I don’t know much, but I hope to know more after our first meeting,” he said.