Ted Cruz will attend the funeral of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on Saturday, after his campaign previously said he would not be able to leave the campaign trail. Instead, they intend to pay their respects while Scalia’s body lies in repose in the Great Hall on Friday. They carried the casket past the Supreme Court justices before placing it on the Lincoln Catafalque.
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Turner joined thousands of other Scalia fans, history buffs, court-watchers and just plain citizens who bundled up against the chill weather and gray skies Friday to pay their respects.
-Scalia’s funeral is planned for Saturday morning at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. Lying in repose is a tradition last observed for Chief Justice William Rehnquist in 2005.
Earnest also pushed back against critics who he said wanted to use the funeral of a Supreme Court justice as “some sort of political cudgel”.
Scalia was first appointed to the court by former President Ronald Reagan in 1986, according to Reuters. Chief Justice John Roberts, his hands clasped in front of him, bowed his head. White House lawyers have prepared lengthy briefing dossiers for Obama’s review that include detailed accounts of top picks for the court.
“We have to pick somebody, as the President will, who is intellectually competent, is a person of high moral character, is a person who is demonstrated to have an open mind, and is a person who doesn’t come with a specific agenda”, he told Politico and The Washington Post in an interview aboard his vice presidential aircraft Thursday. The court’s ideological balance of power is at stake, and Obama’s nominee could tip it to the left for the first time in decades.
A 2007 portrait of Scalia by artist Nelson Shanks was displayed nearby.
Father Paul Scalia, Justice Scalia’s son, will deliver the homily at the funeral mass on Saturday.
Supreme Court police served as pallbearers to carry the casket up the marble steps into the court’s Great Hall.
A large entourage of Scalia family members, including his widow, Maureen, was in attendance.
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Senate Republicans worked to close ranks Thursday around their leader’s opposition to President Barack Obama picking a new Supreme Court justice, arguing they would be well within their right to refuse to confirm a nominee in Obama’s final year in office.
