“The president and Mrs. Obama extended their personal condolences on behalf of the nation, and expressed gratitude for Justice Scalia’s decades of public service, ‘ Earnest said”.
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Students on a field trip from St. Mary’s High School, an Episcopal school in Raleigh, North Carolina, were among the crowd of about 200 on hand as Scalia’s casket arrived. Black wool crepe hung over the entrance, and Scalia’s courtroom chair was draped in black. Members of the public will be able to view the casket after a brief private ceremony at 9:30 a.m. (1430 GMT) attended by the remaining eight justices and Scalia’s family.
Rhaleta Bernard of Queens, New York, where Scalia grew up, had been visiting Washington with her husband, Kelvin.
Larry Cirignano, an anti-abortion rights activist, said that Scalia’s loss will be felt on the court.
“I want another Scalia”, said Bernard, a reading specialist. “I don’t think there’s another one, though”.
In the afternoon, President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama visited the court to honor Scalia.
Scalia had called the ruling in the health care case “pure applesauce”.
For a president who promised to work to bring America together, and who rose to fame with a 2004 speech that asserted, “There is not a liberal America and a conservative America – there is the United States of America”, it should behoove Obama to pay the most solemn of respects to a man who was his ideological opposite.
The Mass open to family and friends will take place Saturday at 11 a.m.at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. Burial plans have not been released. Several candidates said they wanted the nomination to be delayed until the next president takes office, as others suggested that in the event of a nomination, Obama’s nominee be thwarted in the Senate.
Reid added that he thought Senate Republicans were going to eventually hold hearings on a nominee, and a vote will eventually be taken on the Senate floor.
Scalia was found dead on Saturday in his room at a remote Texas hunting resort.
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Current Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy was confirmed by a Democratic-controlled during the previous year of President Ronald Reagan’s term in a unanimous vote.
