Obama, Supreme Court justices, pay respects to Justice Scalia

The most recent member of the Supreme Court to die was Chief Justice William Rehnquist in 2005.

But Republicans have pointed out that Obama and members of his cabinet, who were then in the Senate, were not above trying to block the Supreme Court nomination of Justice Samuel Alito by then-President George W. Bush in 2006.

Late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who died Saturday at a Texas ranch at the age of 79, will lie in repose in the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., Friday.

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama plan to pay their respects later in the day.

Mr. Obama has made a decision to skip the funeral; Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden will attend it instead.

Speculation abounds as to whom Obama will nominate for Scalia’s place, as many Republicans demand that the nomination take place after the new president takes office next year.

Jars of applesauce and bouquets of broccoli were left on the steps of the Supreme Court on Friday as part of a makeshift memorial for the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

The basilica can hold at least 3,500 people, and those seats are expected to be filled with family, friends and dignitaries.

“The president’s team, over the course of this week, has spent a lot of time preparing materials for the president’s review, and I would expect, over the weekend, that the president will begin to dig into the materials that have been prepared for him”, Earnest said.

If Republicans seem seriously amenable to holding confirmation hearings, Obama would have greater reason to name a “consensus candidate”, a moderate nominee that Republicans would be hard-pressed to reject.

“It doesn’t get less than zero but yeah, I do think his characterization is accurate in so far as talking about what should happen”, he said. Cruz talks about following the U.S. Constitution, but our forefathers did not say that a president in his a year ago can not make a nomination to the court. He noted that he voted, along with the Democratic-controlled Senate, to confirm Justice Anthony Kennedy, who was nominated by President Ronald Reagan and unanimously confirmed in 1988, an election year.

EVAN VUCCI/AFP/Getty Images President Obama has vowed to submit a Supreme Court nominee to the Senate who will be “indisputably” qualified.

Obama shed little light on whom he would choose or how the White House will try to finesse his choice through Congress.