Alongside Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia at the remote Texas ranch where he died almost two weeks ago were members of a worldwide, man-only hunting society known as the International Order of St. Hubertus, which originated in Europe in the 1600s.
The Washington Post reported that some of the men at Cibolo Creek Ranch with Scalia are connected to the society, according to public records, and that members of the International Order of St. Hubertus met there for a weekend once before.
Members of the Order wear dark-green robes with a cross emblem and the maxim “Deum Diligite Animalia Diligentes” or “Honoring God by honoring His creatures,” the group’s website says. The society is named after Hubert, the patron saint of hunters and fishermen.
Ranch owner John Poindexter and C. Allen Foster, a Washington lawyer who traveled to the ranch with Scalia by private plane, hold leadership positions in the order, the Post reported — although the paper noted that Scalia’s connection to the society, if any, is not clear.
“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 told the Post in an email. “I am aware of no connection between that organization and Justice Scalia.”
A Scalia family attorney didn’t reply to the Post’s request for comment.
More from the Post:
Two other private planes that landed at the ranch for the weekend are linked to two men who have held leadership positions with the Texas chapter of the Order, according to a review of state business filings and flight records from the airport.
After Scalia’s death, Poindexter told reporters that he met Scalia at a “sports group” gathering in Washington. The U.S. chapter of the International Order of St. Hubertus lists a suite on M Street NW in the District as its headquarters, although the address is only a mailbox in a United Parcel Service store. […]
In 2010, Poindexter hosted a group of 53 members of the Houston chapter of the International Order of St. Hubertus at the Cibolo Creek Ranch, according to a Houston society publication. A number of members from Mexico were also part of the ranch festivities that included “three days of organized shoots and ‘gala’ lunches and dinners.”
Poindexter told CultureMap Houston that some of the guests dressed in “traditional European shooting attire for the boxed bird shoot competition” and for the shooting of pheasants and chukar, a type of partridge.
For the hunting weekend earlier this month, Poindexter told The Washington Post that Scalia traveled to Houston with his friend and U.S. marshals, who provide security for Supreme Court justices. The Post obtained a Presidio County Sheriff’s Office report that named Foster as Scalia’s close friend on the trip.
Sheriff Danny Dominguez confirmed that a photograph of Washington lawyer C. Allen Foster is the same man he interviewed at the ranch the day of Scalia’s death.
