Republicans’ messaging had been all over the map since Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY) said the chamber wouldn’t even consider any nominee put forward by President Obama.
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Vice President Joe Biden attended the Mass along with 10 of 11 current and retired justices on the court, report the Associated Press and the Washington Post.
The service was celebrated by Fr Paul Scalia, one of Justice Scalia’s nine children. “That man, of course, is Jesus of Nazareth”.
The Catholic priest assured the many lawyers in the audience who may have felt the sting of Scalia’s barbed questions during Supreme Court arguments that he shared their pain.
Washington Archbishop Donald Cardinal Wuerl has drawn chuckles when he told the massive crowd at Justice Antonin Scalia’s funeral Mass that he would keep opening remarks brief “in keeping with your desire to have a simple parish family Mass”.
More than 3,000 people looked on, including other family members, the court’s remaining eight justices, lawmakers, Vice President Joseph Biden and former Vice President Dick Cheney.
But that’s just what the court will have to deal with, perhaps for many months, after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s memorial service on Saturday provided a brief respite for official Washington from the fierce battle over his succession, with political and legal leaders and many others in attendance. He famously sparred with liberals who view the constitution as a living document and frequently declared in public speeches his view that the Constitution is dead, dead, dead. Several federal judges who are considered possible replacements for Scalia also attended the funeral Mass, including Judges Sri Srinivasan and Patricia Millett and Chief Judge Merrick Garland, all of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. “Right now, we are particularly grateful for it”, Paul Scalia said.
Justice Clarence Thomas read a passage from the New Testament’s Book of Romans.
A staunch conservative and the court’s longest-serving member, Justice Scalia died last Saturday at age 79 at a Texas hunting resort, sparking a political struggle that promises to reshape the 2016 election campaigns. Yet, they don’t realize, that if they lose the White House, it is assured that they’ll lose the court anyway. We all dread doing it, but it’s significant.
The void created by Scalia’s death will be visible on Monday.
Roberts recounted Scalia’s humble roots in New Jersey, his graduation at the top of his class at Georgetown University and his stellar performance at Harvard Law School. The American people, rather than a lame-duck president whose priorities and policies they rejected in the most-recent national election, should be afforded the opportunity to replace Justice Scalia.
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“I think because they’re intimidated by the dominant element of the Republican Party, the national politics right now, the far right”.
