Scalia Death Suspicious "We discovered the judge in bed, a pillow over his head."

Does anyone find this odd that THIS is the FIRST major case to come before the Supreme Court AFTER Justice Scalia's death...
That it involves a TEXAS Ruling...
That Scalia would've been the deciding vote...
That IF Scalia HAD been able to vote...the resulting law would've set a precedent against abortion rights groups NATIONWIDE?

Supreme Court takes up Texas abortion law

First major case since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia

The Supreme Court will take up the most important abortion case in two decades Wednesday as the justices consider a Texas law requiring that doctors have admitting privileges at local hospitals and clinics upgrade their facilities to hospital-like standards.

It's the first major controversial case the court has handled since the death last month of Justice Antonin Scalia. The fact there are only eight justices raises the possibility the court could end up in a 4-4 split -- a possibility that would allow the Texas law to take effect but not set a national precedent.

The death of Scalia shifts the calculus somewhat. Before his passing, supporters of abortion rights knew that one scenario could be that the justices might uphold the law and use the Texas case to narrow a woman's right to an abortion nationwide.

That now seems unlikely to happen. If Kennedy sides with the court's conservatives, and the liberal bloc stays together, there would be a 4-4 split. That means the law would be upheld, but there would be no new national precedent. If Kennedy sides with the liberal wing, it would be a 5-3 ruling striking down the law.

www.mywabashvalley.com...

a reply to: IAMTAT

It's the first major controversial case the court has handled since the death last month of Justice Antonin Scalia. The fact there are only eight justices raises the possibility the court could end up in a 4-4 split -- a possibility that would allow the Texas law to take effect but not set a national precedent.

And the case could be revisited later if and when Obama gets a favorable Justice in.

Obama could also sneak in a recess appointment for the sole purpose of a few select cases.

Precedent is the name of the game.

[ adding this to my notes ]

An interesting article in the New Yorker about Foster, here is the relevant bit:

Foster is a hunting enthusiast, as was Justice Scalia. The lawyer described his passion a couple of years ago in an autobiographical portrait for the fiftieth reunion of the Princeton Class of 1963. Like many such essays, Foster’s begins in a jocular vein—“You’re only as old as your current wife,” he writes. But then he goes on to say that while he spent his professional career practicing law, “I’ve also been pursuing my passion—killing things. I’m sure many of you have become mamby-pamby girly men and think that killing things is oh, so redneck and lower class. Well, you’ll be delighted to know that I generally go killing things with Continental royalty and English nobility, and we look down on the rednecks just like you do.” (According to the Web site of the Order of St. Hubertus, the current grand master is His Imperial Highness Istvan von Habsburg-Lothringen, the archduke of Austria.)

Foster went on, “I am pleased to report that I’ve killed lots of elephants, lions, buffalo, leopards, kudu, deer and the last legally shot black rhinoceros, together with more than 150,000 birds of various species. When the last duck comes flying over with a sign around his neck ‘I am the last duck,’ I will shoot it.” Concluding with a political observation, Foster writes, “It also won’t surprise you that I still rail against liberals, the academic kleptocracy, Washington bureaucrats and feminazis.”

all emphases mine

And this is the type of person who is a mover and shaker in Washington D.C.

originally posted by: xuenchen
a reply to: IAMTAT

It's the first major controversial case the court has handled since the death last month of Justice Antonin Scalia. The fact there are only eight justices raises the possibility the court could end up in a 4-4 split -- a possibility that would allow the Texas law to take effect but not set a national precedent.

And the case could be revisited later if and when Obama gets a favorable Justice in.

Obama could also sneak in a recess appointment for the sole purpose of a few select cases.

Precedent is the name of the game.

[ adding this to my notes ]

X,
Keep posting your notes periodically...each time you update them. They're great.
Also consider using them to start another thread.

a reply to: jadedANDcynical

Foster sounds like a total creep.
I wonder if he's ever hunted anything on two legs.

originally posted by: IAMTAT

Also consider using them to start another thread.

Second this!

BTW, my grandma is still very ill. I am reading. starring, and trying to contribute, but please don't feel like I have bailed on this. I haven't. I will pick it up more when I have the time and headspace.

a reply to: jadedANDcynical

So C. Allen Foster has ties with the notorious Blackwater security agency.
Hmmmm...Where have I heard of that group before?...and who was it who employed them while Secretary of State?

Blackwater’s lawyer re death of four of its contractors
i
C. Allen Foster, Scalia’s unnamed friend on his final hunting trip, represented the company formerly known as Blackwater in a case arising out of the death of four of its contractors during the American occupation of Iraq.



[February 25 2016] Presidio County Sheriff’s Office report named C. Allen Foster as Scalia’s close friend on the trip. [Did he pay for the trip travel? ]his eclectic group of clients has included the Republican Party, the libertarian Cato Institute, and the former Blackwater Security Consulting, which was involved in a series of questionable incidents, including a 2007 shootout in Iraq that killed 17 Iraqis.

The company formerly known as Blackwater agreeing to settle with the families of four security contractors killed in a gruesome 2004 ambush.
The victims’ survivors reached a confidential settlement with the company’s successor, Academi, agreeing to dismiss the case before the Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. The court entered an order dismissing the case on December 29.

An administrator for the estates of Stephen Helvenston, Mike Teague, Jerko Zovko and Wesley Batalona sued Blackwater in 2005 after the contractors were murdered by Iraqi insurgents while escorting a convoy in Fallujah.

MORE:
crescentshift.wordpress.com...

a reply to: IAMTAT

Abortion laws are always good to heat up the whole debate. I say strike it down!
Anyway, had to think of something else:

Dow was in the midst of appealing a $1.06 billion class-action antitrust ruling after a jury found that it had conspired with other chemical companies to fix prices for urethane, a material used in furniture and appliances.

But because of Scalia’s death and the sudden unlikelihood of finding five votes on the Supreme Court to overturn the case, Dow decided to settle for $835 million, the bulk of the original award.

Antonin Scalia: The Billion-Dollar Supreme Court Justice

Re: Blackwater & Secy. of State Clinton

But here are some questions for Secretary Clinton about Blackwater:

Why do you continue to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to a company whose operatives have been indicted for manslaughter of Iraqi civilians;

that is under investigation for arms smuggling and other possible crimes;

that has been implicated in the CIA assassination program allegedly withheld from Congress;

that is owned by a man, Erik Prince, whom a former employee says “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe?”

Moreover, why are you using a company you pledged to ban now that you actually have the power to ban them?

www.commondreams.org...

Wasn't Blackwater also rumored to have been smuggling missiles for Clinton in Benghazi and Syria?

a reply to: IAMTAT

I posted Blackwater as his client on the previous page but didn't know Hilary used them, too!

originally posted by: MotherMayEye

originally posted by: IAMTAT

Also consider using them to start another thread.

Second this!

BTW, my grandma is still very ill. I am reading. starring, and trying to contribute, but please don't feel like I have bailed on this. I haven't. I will pick it up more when I have the time and headspace.

Sorry about your grandmother. My mom passed away a couple months ago and my aunt died last week. This thread has been a very good distraction for me!

a reply to: jadedANDcynical

So "killing things" is his passion? It would no longer surprise me if he did hunt 'bigger game.'

Cibolo Ranch, a perfect place to never get caught.

a reply to: jadedANDcynical

He sounds like a total snob. "I hunt with royalty." Oh, please...

Was C. Allen Foster really a "good" friend to Scalia?? Where did that "fact" actually come from?

I'm beginning to have my doubts. I think rather he was friends with Poindexter considering that they both belonged to the Order, rather than buds with Scalia.

I keep seeing it mentioned he and Scalia were friends, but have not been able to confirm any thing more than they were travelling companions on that fateful weekend. All I have found is reference to a redistricting case on a voter's rights issue in 1993 where Allen Foster (when did he add the 'C'?) argued before the Supreme Court and Justice Scalia more or less chastised him.

In 1993, he went before the Supreme Court to argue a case on behalf of Hispanic Republicans in Florida who said the state’s reapportionment plan diluted their voting strength. During the argument, Scalia didn’t spare Foster, asking him tough questions he was known for flinging at lawyers from the bench.

www.washingtonpost.com... 4f4213e8_story.html

Where or who first said he was Scalia's "friend" and did that mean real friend or just acquaintance and/or travelling companion?

a reply to: queenofswords

Now I start to think.

Maybe this Foster character somehow forced Scalia to go on that trip?

Possible blackmail.

Possible threats.

Hmmm.

a reply to: texasgirl

Oh my gosh, I had no idea you were in the midst of all that.

*hugs*

a reply to: IAMTAT

A thought that had occurred to me as well, and agreed on your characterization of Foster. Especially in light of that fact that those are his own words written by him himself.

Shifting gears back into tin-hat mode, here are some finds that seemed of interest and possible relevance:

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Knights of Malta, one of the most peculiar organizations in the world, marked its 900th birthday Saturday with a colorful procession through St. Peter's Square, a Mass in the basilica and an audience with Pope Benedict XVI, himself a member of the onetime chivalrous order drawn from Europe's nobility.

...

The order's international legal status is entirely unique, a sovereign entity that prints its own stamps, coins, license plates and passports, yet has no territory over which it rules. Its forces once occupied Cyprus, Rhodes and Malta, but Napoleon expelled the order from Malta in 1798, depriving it of the final patch of land it ruled.

Nevertheless, the order still enjoys many of the trappings of a small country: U.N. observer status and diplomatic relations with 104 countries, most of them in the developing world where such ties can smooth the delivery of humanitarian aid. But the United States, for one, has no relations, precisely because it's a stateless state.

In his speech Saturday, Benedict affirmed the sovereign status that the order enjoys. He acknowledged its peculiar nature, saying the order's guiding spirit "aims not to exercise power and influence of a worldly character, but in complete freedom to accomplish its own mission for the integral good of man, spirit and body ... with special regard for those whose need of hope and love is greater."

Vatican celebrates Knights of Malta's 900 years

A bit up thread someone mentioned Argentina and some possible connections with Scalia and their debt. Well along that line of inquiry, I found the following:

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) - Argentine President Mauricio Macri painted a grim picture of the nation on Tuesday, telling Congress that the state is broke, drug traffickers are prospering and institutions including the armed forces are so weakened that the borders are barely protected and many military planes cannot fly.

...

Macri addressed the long-standing fight with a group of creditors in the U.S., bluntly framing it as a problem now in the hands of Congress. On Monday, Argentina and the group of creditors led by billionaire investor Paul Singer announced a tentative deal, potentially putting an end to years of legal fights that have kept the South American nation from accessing international credit markets.

Argentine president: nation in bad shape but change coming

Paul Singer (a world wide mover and shaker) who had this to say last year:

The world believes it is in a sweet spot. There is global consensus that central banks know what they are doing and are in control, and that if economies falter, a bigger dose of QE or ZIRP or NIRP (negative interest rate policy – we just made that one up) will keep it from getting out of hand. Additionally, there seems to be a universally held belief that the U.S. is unquestionably the safe haven for the foreseeable future, that its financial crisis and long recession are behind it and that China has complete control over its own destiny. It may not surprise you to learn that we either disagree with or remain unconvinced about every one of the foregoing propositions.

...

Confidence in policymakers and central bankers today should be low or nonexistent, but confidence has not (yet) been lost. Leadership in the developed world is weak and confused, except for President Putin (although his is not the kind of strong leadership that we have in mind as a model for bringing the developed world out of its torpor).

It is for this reason that we are not complacent, because we can easily imagine a transition from the current post-2008 context to a different and scarier environment. Recent abrupt and intense trading shakeouts give some hint of the potential power and violence that resides in modern, over-leveraged, technologically wired markets, and confidence in paper money and central bankers can be lost at any moment.

...

In the last few years, thanks to QE and ZIRP, the common investor has made very good returns despite the lack of solid growth in the global economy. Such an imbalance between economic growth and good investment returns for both stocks and bonds is abnormal and unsustainable for extended periods of time. We at Elliott aim to make at least some money in every environment, with a combination of activities emphasizing complexity and manual effort, including activism. Thus, a period such as the most recent few years masks the benefits of exerting the effort (and accepting the costs) to hedge rather than not, and to try to make things happen rather than passively ride the wave.

all emphases are mine, original article has it's own

Paul Singer Warns "The Consequences Of Monetary Manipulation Are Unknowable"

(The above was included to show at what level Singer and his management company operate)

His Elliott Management is the company who benefited from the Supreme Court's ruling for which Scalia penned the opinion.

Is it mere coincidence that the "tentative deal, potentially putting an end to years of legal fights that have kept the South American nation from accessing international credit markets" happened after Justic Scalia's death?

a reply to: queenofswords

I know. I wondered about that, too. And I think they lied about Scalia never having been to the ranch. He has been in Texas several times to hunt.

It looks as if a former President of Argentina (a close friend of Pope Francis) may have been ousted by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration. The next President of Argentina (her successor) may have been helped into power by Clinton, as well.
Could Hillary have used Blackwater for this, as she has for clandestine arms smuggling in Libya and Syria?

Argentina president claims US plotting to oust her

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner alludes to alleged plot against her by local businessmen and ‘foreign help’ in televised speech

Argentinian opposition politicians have accused the country’s president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, of being “completely out of touch with reality” after she gave a rambling televised address in which she claimed the US may be behind a plot to overthrow her government and possibly even assassinate her.

“If something should happen to me, don’t look to the Middle East, look to the North,” Fernández said during the address on Tuesday night, in which she alluded to an alleged plot against her by local bankers and businessmen “with foreign help”.

Fernández had previously claimed to have received death threats from Islamic State (Isis) because of her friendship with Pope Francis. In last night’s speech, however, she seemed to suggest the threats against her, received in three emails to Argentinian security officials, had come from the US.

Her claim comes in the wake of a rapid deterioration of Argentina’s already rocky relationship with the US after the country went into default in August.

Argentina has rejected paying $1.3bn (£990m) awarded by New York Judge Thomas Griesa to “vulture fund” investors who refused to accept a “haircut” on Argentinian bonds from the country’s previous default in 2001.

“I’m not naive, this is not an isolated move by a senile judge in New York,” said Fernández. “Because vultures look a lot like the eagles of empires,” referring to the bald eagle, the national symbol of the US.

www.theguardian.com...

Wikileaks reveals Hillary Clinton requested information on Argentina’s President

www.examiner.com...

a reply to: IAMTAT

Um...

Energy CEO McClendon dies in Oklahoma car crash, a day after indictment

Add that to this:

Aubrey McClendon is at it again. The founder and former CEO of Chesapeake Energy (NYSE:CHK) recently partnered his new private company, American Energy Partners LP, with Argentina's state-run YPF SA (NYSE:YPF) to explore and develop unconventional oil and gas in the South American nation. The partnership between the two companies includes drilling more than 20 wells, as well as gas treatment facilities.

What Does Chesapeake Energy's Former CEO See in Argentina?

Connected or no?