What We Know: Thousands pay respects to late Justice Scalia

Sotomayor is wearing a bandage on her right hand.

Barely an hour after news of Scalia’s death spread across social media, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky made a bold pronouncement, warning President Barack Obama against nominating a replacement for the late associate justice. But if the Democrats won they might, which would prevent the next president from nominating Obama. He prided himself on being “an Italian kid from Queens”, but he was much more than the first Italian-American appointed to the Supreme Court. And there are a lot people they haven’t voted for who fall in that category.

Earnest said Obama does not yet have a shortlist of candidates.

Trailing Donald Trump in the polls, Cruz asserted that he was the only candidate who could be trusted to nominate strict constructionist justices to the bench. If there’s virtually no chance of Republicans bending, Obama might pick a nominee who galvanizes Democratic support and fires up interest groups in the election year.

Cornyn, McConnell’s deputy, agreed that it should be left to the next president to pick Scalia’s successor. “There will be plenty of time for me to do so, and for the Senate to fulfill its responsibility to give that person a fair hearing and a timely vote”.

“He quickly departed it. As he put it later, ‘Like heck if I’m confessing to you, ‘” the younger Scalia said. Over the weekend, the Senate said they will not take action if there is a nominee until there is a new president.

There are several excellent candidates that Republican and Democrat members of Congress should be able to agree upon as the next Justice.

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”.

Scalia’s rulings generally satisfied conservatives.

The casket of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia is carried by U.S. Supreme Court police officers, at the Supreme Court building, February 19, 2016, in Washington, D.C. Justice Scalia will lie in repose in the Great Hall, where visitors can pay their respects. Other Republicans appeared to walk back earlier comments that had opened the door to granting a hearing and possibly a vote to Obama’s choice to replace Justice Antonin Scalia. His funeral is on Saturday.

In a daily press briefing, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Obama will consult with a wide variety of people with different viewpoints in making his decision.

No sooner was news of the 79-year-old jurist’s passing first reported before the first salvos were fired in what nearly certainly will be [the] mother of all election-year battles for his now-vacant seat on [the] high court.