Obama will be a no-show at Scalia’s funeral

President Barack Obama is due to be among those paying respects at the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to the late Antonin Scalia, the staunch conservative who served as a justice for three decades before his death last Saturday in Texas.

Most other Republican senators who have spoken publicly about replacing the late Justice Antonin Scalia, a leading conservative on the high court, have said a nomination should wait until after the election and a new president is in office.

Vice-President Joe Biden said in an interview broadcast on MSNBC he would be deeply involved in advising Obama but that he had no desire himself to be named to the high court.

But on Thursday, Earnest also suggested a nominee with a history of support from Republicans would be given ample consideration, saying Biden had pointed out a “relevant fact” by highlighting justices who had gained bipartisan support.

Eight Supreme Court police officers serving as pallbearers then carried the casket, draped in a US flag, from a funeral home limousine up the stairs and into the building. Black wool crepe hung over the entrance, and Scalia’s courtroom chair was draped in black.

President Obama is expected to spend a “significant portion” of the weekend pouring through materials related to potential Supreme Court nominees, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Friday.

The procession passed between two long lines of Scalia’s former law clerks that stretched from the plaza to the court’s main entrance. They served together on the lower court, and even though they were ideological opposites, they had a close friendship.

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.

Court officials said Scalia’s casket will arrive Friday morning.

Easterbrook, of the U.S. Seventh Circuit in the Midwest, collaborated with Scalia in the writing of his 2012 book “Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts”. “The ceremony at the Supreme Court seems the most apt opportunity for the president to pay his respects, but he obviously might have severe competing demands on his time”.

That battle will resume following Scalia’s public funeral and private burial today. Chief Justice William Rehnquist died in 2005; President Bush attended.

McConnell has shown no signs of softening his opposition to confirming an Obama nominee, which could put vulnerable Republicans in a precarious position as his party works to keep control of the Senate in the November elections.

“Scalia was a brilliant thought leader on the court and within the country up until the day he died, literally”, Englert said.