Scalia’s body at Texas funeral home after 3-hour procession

The president ordered flags to be flown at half-staff at the high court, where Scalia served for three decades, and other federal buildings throughout the nation and US embassies and military installations throughout the world. “I don’t think the American people want a court that will mandate unlimited abortions on demand, partial birth abortion with taxpayer funding and no parental notification and I don’t think the American people want a court that will write the Second Amendment out of the Constitution”.

But as to whether the remaining Supreme Court justices will be able to function without Scalia, the answer appears to fall in the positive, because there are rules around ties in rulings on decisions, which CNN explained.

Scalia was found dead Saturday morning in his room at a Texas ranch, where he had been on a hunting trip, according to published reports.

“I plan to fulfill my constitutional responsibilities to nominate a successor in due time”, he said.

Republicans can only imagine that with control of the White House and Congress they could nominate nearly half the Supreme Court – for life.

“Let the election decide”, Cruz continued, vowing he would “absolutely” filibuster any Obama nominee.

Insisting there was plenty of time for the Senate to consider his pick, Obama urged lawmakers to take their responsibilities seriously.

The conservative justice, appointed to the lifetime post in 1986 by president Ronald Reagan, died unexpectedly in Texas on Saturday, 11 months before the end of Obama’s term.

The Republican presidential candidate says it’s “really not important to me” whether there’s a vote before then.

It is understandable that having a new voice molding the shape of the Supreme Court would be an enticing idea for Republican senators.

“He’s a man who went to sleep and just didn’t wake up”, said John Poindexter, a Houston businessman who owns the 32,000-acre ranch that sits about 30 miles south of Marfa.

Likewise, York County Court of Common Pleas President Judge Joseph Adams said Sunday that Scalia “left an indelible mark on our legal history”. And within hours of Scalia’s death, as noted in The Inquisitr, Republicans were already saying loudly that they would block nominations until there was a new president.

“The fact is, when you elect a president, you have to assume a Supreme Court vacancy, he is going to make the nomination”, Leahy said.

We should stop all the gamesmanship “stuff” about whether the president should nominate or not.

Battle lines have been drawn in the fight to replace conservative USA supreme court justice Antonin Scalia, threatening to turn a fraught presidential race into a pitched battle for America’s highest court.