Friday, February 19, 2016

Supreme Court Justices Travel On Other People's Dime


The Washington Post has an interesting story on how many trips Supreme Court justices are taking on someone else's dime in the wake of the discovery that the late Justice Scalia's fateful hunting trip to Cibolo Creek Ranch in Presidio County, Texas was paid by someone else, namely the owner of the ranch whose business had a case before the Supreme Court last year. As it turns out, Scalia was by far the most frequent traveler on other people's money, nearly 100 times since 2011. "There's no indication of wrongdoing or ethical impropriety here," The Post assures us.


Investigative reporter Wayne Madsen, who has been reporting from Marfa, Texas this week, has more on this angle of the Scalia death story. He notes that Scalia sided with the Cibolo Creek Ranch owner's case before the Supreme Court last year. "Scalia was one of the judges who found in favor of Poindexter by refusing to hear the age discrimination case (Hinga, James V. Mic Group) and it appears that Scalia’s “quail hunting” trip to Poindexter’s Cibolo Creek Ranch was a payback for the Supreme Court’s legal largesse," Madsen writes. "Poindexter admitted the free trip was a 'gift' to Scalia." Poindexter claims that while he didn't pay for Scalia's air travel on a private chartered jet, he did provide free room, food and drinks to the late justice during the trip.

Madsen disputes Poindexter's claim on the air travel. "However, Cibolo Creek Airport is owned by Southwestern Holdings, Inc. of Houston, which is owned by Poindexter and other reports indicated that Scalia’s air travel was also provided gratis by Poindexter," Madsen writes. "The Cibolo airport has been served by Cibolo Air’s fleet of two propeller-driven King Air 65-C90s (tail numbers N80TB and N690JP)," he adds. "At the very least, Scalia’s apparent conflict-of-interest in accepting a free trip from a Supreme Court litigant demands a federal law enforcement investigation," he continued. "Perhaps it was Scalia’s possible violation of ethics and the law that created the kerfuffle surrounding the lid being placed on details concerning his sudden death."

3 comments:

Anonymous said...


It is long past time for this nation to eradicate SCOTUS-Emperors For Life. Unelected by the people, they weigh in on any matter and force the people to follow their ideas of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. None of us should have to bow to lifers like these.

SCOTUS members should have terms limits like the Presidents who nominate them. So should every damn senator and congressman on the Hill.

This privileged permanent ruling class such as we have now is not responsive to the people.

Anonymous said...

Yep,it's obvious. The Justices of the Supreme Court have been for sale. I wonder what's so special about Poindexter's little getaway enclave?

The food must be spectacular? The accommodations second to none?

Maybe......The escorts are special? Underage? Who knows? Blackmail seems to work in America. Plus,everyone is for sale in America--or, at least it appears so.


It's seemingly apparent there is something very special about Poindexter's little place. It must be Heavenly! Heavenly enough that a Supreme Court Justice is willing to take the time to fly out and spend some "special" time with certain people. People that have court cases before them. It's obvious Scalia wasn't there to get some exercise. Hmmmmm. Scalia......Sounds like a virus.

Marycatherine Barton said...

And two other aligned reports are: "Did an Evening Pork Chop Cause the Death of Zionist Apologist Antonin Scalia?" NoDisinfo.com; and "Antonin Scalia's Death During Secret Junket Points to New Ethical Violations" www.wsws.org.