Scalia's Hunting Trip Was a "Gift" From a "Friend" Who Had Business Before the Supreme Court

[kpete]

The two men already had a tenuous connection outside of the ranch. Last year, an age discrimination suit filed against the Mic Group, a subsidiary of J.B. Poindexter & Co., reached the Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case.

In an email to the Post, Poindexter said Scalia, who was invited to the ranch as a personal guest, was not charged for his stay. A person “familiar with the ranch’s operations” tells the paper Poindexter typically hosts these free events two to three times a year.

“I did not pay for the Justice’s trip to Cibolo Creek Ranch,” Poindexter wrote in a brief email Tuesday. “He was an invited guest, along with a friend, just like 35 others.”

Poindexter added: “The Justice was treated no differently by me, as no one was charged for activities, room and board, beverages, etc. That is a 22-year policy.’’

Poindexter explicitly denied paying for Scalia’s charter flight to the ranch and declined to identify the friend who accompanied Scalia or any of the other guests on the trip.

http://gawker.com/scalias-hunting-trip-was-a-gift-from-a-friend-who-h-1759637837

[Baitball Blogger]

1. "My bribery was clean!" he insisted.

[hoosierlib]

2. Not surprised...both Thomas and Scalia have major COIs

And their definition of bribery is a fucking joke...poor Gov. McDonnel will have to go to prison now...

[Merryland]

3. Who was the "friend"

Guessing it was a love interest since no one is exposing her/him

[OregonBlue]

17. Either another woman or a boy toy would be my guess.

[pinboy3niner]

21. The "friend" in the headline is the ranch's owner, Poindexter

"The trip, the Washington Post reports, was a gift from the ranch’s owner, who just last year obtained a favorable result from the Supreme Court."

The other friend, Poindexter said early on, was one of Poindexter's friends, an invited guest who also was friends with Scalia. When that guest's son canceled at the last minute, Scalia was invited.

Poindexter, who made his wealth in manufacturing, said he had only met Scalia once before briefly, in Washington. Scalia came to the ranch because he was friends with another guest whose son had to back out of the trip at the last minute.

"All the guests were friends of mine, I paid for all of them. There were no politics, no jurisprudence in the slightest," he said, declining to name the other guests.

"It was an honor to have him. He was widely admired. There were no speeches. He wasn't asked any hard questions, it was all about the outdoors and Texas, and what it's like to being a Supreme Court Justice."

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/transportation/article/Ranch-owner-laments-loss-of-Scalia-6830769.php

[B Calm]

4. Best government money can buy.

[treestar]

5. funny we'd never know of this if Scalia hadn't died

but meh, Scalia was going to rule as a conservative no matter what. An opinion has to be written and make sense. They can't just decide to corruptly favor someone and not have it exposed.

[catbyte]

6. What a shocker.

The Supreme Court is a cesspool of Republican special interests. Thomas' wife is a Tea Party leader. The Supreme Court is supposed to be non-partisan. Yeah, what a sick joke.

[underpants]

7. I looked up rates there $300-700 a night

That wasn't the Presidential suite.

Just to give you an idea.

[Octafish]

8. The Pretzeldental Suite I'm talking about gives guests three squares a day.

They take tips in cigarettes.

[2naSalit]

10. if only......nt

[Rose77]

43. love this pic

OneoftheOnes

[tk2kewl]

9. money is speech my friend

he was just listening to speech

[thesquanderer]

45. Yup. You say "bribe," I say "conversation." (n/t)

[Rex]

11. So Scalia was grifting until his last breath?

Rot in Hell Judge Dickhead, the world is a much better place without you.

[tabasco]

13. I wish there was such a place as hell

so that evil ratfuckers like Scalia could be punished for the damage they have wrought.

[Rex]

15. I don't believe it either, but I will root for such a place to exist

since so many seem to be afraid that it does exist. True, Judge Rotten is now just powder sitting on a mantle somewhere.

[Lordquinton]

26. The take away here

is that Scalia believed in it.

[MH1]

12. Well, I guess he recused himself, so ....

(my apologies to anyone who finds that in bad taste)

[Vincardog]

14. This is exactly why we must force Congress to require the SC to abide by the same ethics rules as

Every other Federal judge.

[KamaAina]

16. That might take a constitutional amendment

SCOTUS is the only branch of the federal judiciary explicitly mentioned in the Constitution. All other federal courts fall under the "Congress shall create such other courts as..." clause.

[Vincardog]

18. Article III. Section. 2.

In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.

[jberryhill]

19. "such regulations" in that clause

Refers back to the scope of appellate Jurisdiction. It's part of a prepositional phrase and you have to look at the subject of that object.

In other words, this clause authorizes most of Title 28 of the US Code and, in particular, Part IV. (https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/28)

This is not some sort of blanket "Congress can regulate any aspect of the court it wants" authority, nor would we want it to be.

There have been crank legislative proposals, for example, for Congress to ban abortion and also specify that the Supreme Court would not have jurisdiction over that statute.

[JudyM]

38. It is astounding that they don't have to abide by ethics rules.

I was thinking the other day that Scalia should've been disbarred years ago.

Ginsberg apparently felt that he was all about the integrity of the Court, about honoring it as an institution.... And yet he has done more to destroy its integrity than anyone I know of.

[Vincardog]

39. Fat Tony should have been impeached. The corrupt Cognress would have had to do it. No Chance.

[JudyM]

40. That's right. RBG's esteem for him is something I'll never comprehend.

And as for Scalia, no doubt there will be study halls, law libraries, etc named after him. He ought to go down in infamy but he won't.

[LiberalAndProud]

20. I don't see how this could possibly be policed.

How is this different from ordinary socializing? He visited for a hunting trip weekend a year after declining to hear a case. I don't see anything terribly nefarious about this. What am I missing?

[Major Nikon]

23. Actually it was only 4 months

The petition was denied on Oct 15th of last year, so in all likelihood the trip was already on Scalia's calendar prior to the denial.

So did or could the trip have influenced Scalia? Probably not. The case had already been denied all the way up the line for failure to establish prima facie (which is very common in discrimination cases). 98% of all the petitions submitted to the SCOTUS are denied, and this one appears to be pretty straightforward. The petitioner was fired (according to the company) because his impropriety cost them $194K, and he subsequently filed an age discrimination suit against them.

http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca5/14-20616/14-20616-2015-05-06.html

[skepticscott]

42. Even if the trip was intended as neither an incentive or a reward

in actual fact, any judge, and a Supreme Court justice especially, should have made every effort to avoid even the appearance of impropriety or a conflict of interest. The fact that this is raising an alert, even if it were ultimately proven to be groundless, shows that Scalia did not.

[Major Nikon]

44. Certainly

Scalia has consistently shown he completely lacks the integrity required to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. So there's no question Scalia had no qualms about tarnishing the image of the court. That's just part of what made him an absolute piece of shit.

[MariaThinks]

22. lots of animals have been saved because of that imbeciles death.

[Arugula Latte]

24. Scalia was the poster boy for everything that was wrong with this country.

[yourout]

25. And quid pro quo is seafood.

Fat Tony was nothing but a mob lawyer with a black dress

[lastone]

29. Love it

^^^^^^^

Fat Tony was nothing but a mob lawyer with a black dress

You win with that one!

[DebbieCDC]

31. DUZY

[lastone]

27. the originalist - right

just like thomas, taking gifts from people he'll soon preside over.

tell me again why we should not all be dancing on this assholes grave?

[malaise]

28. I'm shocked I tell you

NOT - corrupt scumbags all. I shed no tears - good riddance.

[TygrBright]

30. I'm having to bulk-order irony meters these days. Going through a couple dozen a week, now... n/t

[monicaangela]

32. Ist's amazing how

the "liberal" judges immediately recuse themselves if they have even and appearance of impropriety when it comes to judging a case, and "conservative judges like Thomas and the late (thank God) Scalia mingled with many who had cases before the court, even attended meetings/galas, you name it the Koch brothers have had...political meetings by the way, and I don't believe I have ever seen either of them recuse themselves even though they know the case is like the one being discussed in this article. We really need to insist we get better from our Supreme Court, our Congress, and our Presidents...after all, this "government" is suppose to be of by and for the people, not just the few that we send to Washington D.C. or our local and state governments to represent us, not just 1% of us.

[fredamae]

33. Well, then...

Can we examine the gifts/connections for the rest of the SCOTUS? And Congress?

It's time to pull "the curtain" All the way back.

[Ghost Dog]

36. That's positive thinking.

Presumably such people would lose their sinecures once criminal charges have been made to stick?

[fredamae]

37. Hopefully-but.........the way things are......

I'm not at this time-confident that those who have the power (currently) to act on behalf of the people would do so out of fear they and Their "friends" may also be exposed?

Reality being absolutely exposed shatters any small hope some still have that all we have suspected could never actually happen in America.
What a mess.

[lark]

34. Scalia was all brusque front with no insides.

He had no concern for ethics or morals, would blatantly go on a hunting trip with Cheney days before he had a case scheduled that was directly about him and Cheney paid all the costs. Would blatantly take a trip from Poindexter before he heard that case. He was vile and venal and the best thing I've EVER heard said of him was that he had a great sense of humor. Guess he thought it was funny when he was destroying our constitution and putting the unelected and worst president ever in office just as a favor to him and his family.

I totally revile the man and am not sad one bit at his passing.

[eppur_se_muova]

35. Hey, it worked for Cheney, didn't it ? nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

41. Hmm... What is the word I am looking for?

Corruption will work

[yellowcanine]

46. Actually he did not have business before the SCOTUS, as it declined to hear the case.

It is not as if they are going to go back and agree to hear the case because Scalia gets a hunting trip. Much ado about nothing, I think.