Outside, the line of mourners stretched for almost a block.
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The flag covering the casket of late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is adjusted by funeral home staff before the doors opened to the public in the Great Hall of the Supreme Court where the late Justice lies in repose in Washington February 19, 2016.
Obama and first lady Michelle Obama walked to the casket and stood silently for less than a minute. They served together on the lower court, and even though they were ideological opposites, they had a close friendship.
They then walked over to the portrait of Scalia and observed it for another minute or two, chatting quietly.
She said Obama should name a replacement for Scalia, an influential conservative member of the nation’s high court who was found dead Saturday at age 79. “There are, as you know, a large number of lawyers who work at the White House, and they’ve produced a significant quantity of information and I suspect the president will be dedicating a significant portion of his weekend digging into that information”.
The comments offer some of the first indications of the president’s criteria in replacing the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
On Friday, more than 6,000 people paid their respects as Scalia’s body lay in repose at the Great Hall. Among them were several mentioned as possible successors: Judges Sri Srinivasan and Patricia Millett and Chief Judge Merrick Garland, all of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
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.
This brazen, undisguised hypocrisy (Republicans mocked the existence of the Thurmond rule back in 2007 when George W. Bush had the potential to nominate a Supreme Court Justice during his past year in office) and ridiculous attempt to impede the political process, once again, simply because they do not like Obama did not sit well with the American people. Oh, wait a minute, there is no such tradition and it’s been done about, oh, eight times.
Scalia’s funeral service is scheduled for Saturday. Some keep walking slowly, while others pause for a few moments to bow their heads. Among those in line were students in town on Washington trips, hoping to witness a piece of history, and members of the public and legal community hoping to honor Scalia’s memory and his contributions to the law with their visit.
The US Constitution provides that any nominee put forth by the president for the country’s highest court must be confirmed by the Senate, where Republicans now have a 54-46 majority.
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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”.
