The Obamas will not attend attend Scalia’s funeral at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, the White House has already said.
Advertisement
Father Paul Scalia, a Catholic priest who is one of Scalia’s nine children, delivered a prayer before the justices quietly filed away.
With Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s unexpected death on Saturday, the fate of America’s highest court has suddenly become the biggest question of the 2016 election.
Speculation abounds as to whom Obama will nominate for Scalia’s place, as many Republicans demand that the nomination take place after the new president takes office next year.
Fellow Supreme Court justices and the general public, as well as U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama, are expected to pay their respects Friday.
None of the justices spoke during the private ceremony, and they did not don their black judicial robes, though they sent a signal of sorts by standing arrayed in their new order of seniority.
WASHINGTON-The Supreme Court bid farewell to Justice Antonin Scalia on Friday, at a brief and solemn service in the court’s Great Hall. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kent., says Obama should leave the decision on who will replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia to the next president.
“Your job doesn’t stop until you are voted out or until your term expires”, he said.
Scalia’s son Christopher wrote in a remembrance in The Washington Post on Saturday that his father loved opera, classical music and the Yankees.
Before Scalia’s body arrived, his former clerks formed two lines down the court steps and across its marble plaza.
Those included the contentious 1991 Separately, retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the court and a nominee of Republican President Ronald Reagan, took issue with Republicans who are demanding that Obama’s successor pick the person to fill Scalia’s vacancy.
Scalia saw his share of controversy over his opinions, including those on gay rights, abortion and the death penalty.
The Obama administration will be represented at the funeral by Vice President Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden.
Senate Republicans have made a commitment to ensuring that the American people have a voice in the selection of the next Supreme Court Justice.
Advertisement
The court’s remaining eight justices were among those on hand to say farewell to their former colleague, who died last week at age 79.
