White House Press Secretary Josh Ernest said Wednesday that the president and First Lady Michelle Obama plan to pay their “respects” at the Supreme Court on Friday, where Scalia will lie in repose.
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Members of the U.S. Supreme Court paid their respects to their late colleague Antonin Scalia during a brief but somber ceremony at the court on Friday. “And Vice President and Dr. Jill Biden will attend the funeral mass on Saturday”. The Judicial Crisis Network, a conservative group headed by a former clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas, said it was spending more than $1 million on TV and radio ads in Washington arguing that “next president chooses the next justice”. By attending the funeral Obama would have underscored the importance of nonpartisanship when it comes to the court.
The Democratic president’s nominee could change the balance of power on the top USA court – Scalia’s death left it with four conservative and four liberal justices – and a monumental fight is brewing over Obama’s pick for the lifetime appointment.
Although the White House hasn’t publicly disclosed any candidates Obama is considering, he’s expected to look closely at a number of circuit court judges – including some who meet the benchmark that Biden laid out.
She noted that it’s unusual to for a Supreme Court opening to exist in an election year, saying that the proximity to the presidential race “creates too much talk around the thing that isn’t necessary”.
President Barack Obama is due to be among those paying respects later in the day, as will members of the public.
“I’m amused when I hear people who claim to be strict interpreters of the Constitution suddenly reading into it a whole series of provisions that are not there”, Obama said.
Eventually, it could also put an end to the current ludicrously broad interpretation of the Second Amendment (largely the work of the late Justice Scalia).
If no replacement is confirmed, the Supreme Court will operate with eight justices – not just for the rest of this court term, but for most of the next one as well.
Scalia was a devout Catholic who fathered nine children. He says he found the pillow above Scalia’s head, not over his face.
Earnest portrayed Obama’s vote to try to block Alito as “symbolic” and sought to contrast it to “Republicans’ reflexive opposition” to Obama nominating a justice to replace Scalia.
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Two moderates Republicans, Susan Collins of ME and Mark Kirk of IL, have said it’s too soon after the death of the long-serving justice for a political debate over his replacement.
