Sandra Day O’Connor: Obama Should Get to Choose Scalia’s Replacement

He added, “It’s entirely up to the Senate whether to confirm that nomination, and I think we should not, and we should defer that to the next president”.

The president is already consulting with Republicans and Democrats in Congress to find out who might be acceptable.

“There is a clear precedent here”, Earnest said.

When Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, said after Scalia’s death on Saturday that the next president, rather than Obama, should select a successor, the senator’s words struck a familiar and painful chord with many black voters.

O’Connor, the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court in 1981, retired from the bench in 2006 to care for her ailing husband.

But others Republicans held firm.

Picking a Supreme Court justice is naturally a political act (and Democrats will of course politicize this as well) but conservatives are tripping over themselves to prevent Obama from doing what a president is supposed to do. “He just had a good perspective of life”, said DeConcini. “Because it’s bigger than that”. It says appointments shall be made with the advice and consent of the Senate. “That is very different than saying every nominee receives a vote”. Who would Obama most like to see take that Supreme Court seat?

Advocacy groups were getting involved, too.

DeConcini said he will miss Justice Scalia’s companionship the most.

Obama has challenged Republicans to live up to their avowed adherence to the Constitution and agree to vote on his nominee.

The issue has been heightened by the fact that the Supreme Court is set to decide its first major abortion case in almost 10 years, as well as legal challenges on voting rights, affirmative action, immigration and unions. Senators also unanimously confirmed Jane Kelly in 2013 to the St. Louis-based 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The White House arranged for photographers to snap pictures of Obama carrying a thick binder filled with papers during his walk from the Oval Office to his residence on Friday night as he ponders who to pick to replace conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, who died on February 13.