When Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died at a 30,000 acre Texas ranch 11 days ago, he was not there for a soapmaking workshop. According to the Washington Post, the gathering was attended by members of the International Order of St. Hubertus, an “elite hunting society,"—i.e. the first thing that came to your mind when you learned that the jurist who pretended to live in 1781 and hated gay people had died in his bed in a luxury suite at a private West Texas resort two hours from the closest major city.
The Order’s website says the hunting society was “founded in 1695 by Count Franz Anton von Sporck in what was then the Kingdom of Bohemia, then territory of the Habsburg Empire, now the modern Czech Republic,” and that the modern order in America was founded by…rich men in San Francisco in 1966.
The Post’s story is paywalled (Hubertus goons probably reminded Bezos of the ditch they had to dig at the last Hubertus picnic) but they still manage to report that the owner of the Cibolo Creek Ranch, John Poindexter and Scalia’s traveling companion to the ranch, attorney C. Allen Foster, both “hold leadership positions within the Order.” In 2010, the ranch hosted another get together of the Order, at which a Supreme Court Justice did not die.
When asked for comment by the Post, Poindexter turned on the multimillionaire charm:
“There is nothing I can add to your observation that among my many guests at Cibolo Creek Ranch over the years some members of the International Order of St. Hubertus have been numbered,” Poindexter said in an email. “I am aware of no connection between that organization and Justice Scalia.”
Two of the planes that flew members of the hunting party down to the ranch are owned by Republican donors, the Post reports, though Scalia and Foster chartered their own from Houston.
While Scalia was alive and making impartial legal decisions affecting the entire country, he enjoyed lavish getaways hosted by the Koch brothers, and even went hunting with Dick Cheney, who is a member of the elite Brotherhood Of Shooting Acquaintances In The Face With A Shotgun.
