Americans Say Farewell To Justice Scalia

The casket containing the late Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, arrives for a funeral mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington on February 20, 2016.

In a hallowed place where popes have prayed and pilgrims have flocked, mourners gathered Saturday at the nation’s largest Catholic church to pay their final respects to Justice Antonin Scalia.

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.

President Barack Obama cannot select the most liberal possible candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court and should seek a “consensus” pick who could attract Republican support, Vice President Joe Biden said on Thursday.

The casket will be placed in the court’s Great Hall on the Lincoln Catafalque, the platform on which President Abraham Lincoln’s coffin rested in the Capitol rotunda in 1865.

One might have assumed Rev. Paul Scalia was speaking about his father Justice Antonin Scalia when he began his homily at his father’s funeral Mass.

Mr Scalia died unexpectedly at his remote Texas ranch last Saturday.

The burial will be private, and the Supreme Court hasn’t released details.

Scalia, appointed by Republican President Ronald Reagan in 1986 as the court’s first Italian-American, earned a reputation as a brilliant jurist during an era when the court was dominated by conservatives.

Lessig also noted that nowhere in the Constitution does it say that the president should not nominate judges to the Supreme Court during the past year of his term, a reference to some Senate Republicans who argue otherwise.

Scalia’s casket is scheduled to make its way from the Fairfax Memorial Funeral Home in Virginia to the Supreme Court Great Hall at 9:30 a.m. The general public viewing is scheduled to last until 8 p.m. EST.

Scalia’s son Christopher eulogized his father in the Washington Post this week, describing a man who would tease his children when they said “um” and dispute calls during “the Scalia Bowl”, as the family called its Thanksgiving touch football game.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other GOP leaders have said a replacement should not be named until the next president takes office.

The NBC News/Wall Street Journal national survey found that 43% of people said the Senate should vote this year, while 42% would rather leave the matter to the next president.

Mr Obama has insisted he will go through with the nomination.

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.