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Scalia’s death plunges court, national politics into turmoil Scalia’s death plunges court, national politics into turmoil
(about 3 hours later)
The death of Justice Antonin Scalia on Saturday plunged the Supreme Court and the nation’s politics into turmoil, and an immediate partisan battle began over whether President Obama should be allowed to nominate his successor. Justice Antonin Scalia, the longest-serving member of the current Supreme Court and an intellectual leader of the conservative legal movement, died Saturday, and his death set off an immediate political battle about the future of the court and its national role.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a statement that the Senate controlled by his party should not confirm a replacement for Scalia until after the election. Scalia, 79, was found dead at a hunting resort in Texas after he did not appear for breakfast, law enforcement officials said. A cause of death was not immediately reported.
“The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president,” McConnell said. President Obama, who disagreed with Scalia’s jurisprudence, nevertheless praised him as “a larger-than-life presence on the bench” and a “brilliant legal mind [who] influenced a generation of judges, lawyers and students, and profoundly shaped the legal landscape.”
But the battle lines were immediately apparent. Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) followed McConnell’s statement with one of his own: Obama said he would nominate a successor, even though the Senate’s Republican leadership and its presidential candidates said an election-year confirmation was out of the question.
“It would be unprecedented in recent history for the Supreme Court to go a year with a vacant seat,” he said. “Failing to fill this vacancy would be a shameful abdication of one of the Senate’s most essential Constitutional responsibilities.”
[Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia dies at 79][Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia dies at 79]
In a telephone interview Saturday night, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.), the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said, “The president has said he will send a nominee to the Senate.” Scalia’s sudden death casts a cloud of uncertainty over a Supreme Court term filled with some of the most controversial issues facing the nation: abortion, affirmative action, the rights of religious objectors to the contraceptive mandate in the Affordable Care Act, and the president’s powers on immigration and deportation.
Leahy joined Reid in saying that the court should not go a year without a full array of justices.
“The American people deserve to have a fully functioning Supreme Court,” he said in a statement. “The Supreme Court of the United States is too important to our democracy for it to be understaffed for partisan reasons. It is only February. The President and the Senate should get to work without delay to nominate, consider and confirm the next justice to serve on the Supreme Court.”
Scalia’s shocking death also creates doubt about the outcome of a Supreme Court term that was filled with some of the most controversial issues facing the nation: abortion, affirmative action, the rights of religious objectors to the contraceptive mandate in the Affordable Care Act, and the president’s powers on immigration and deportation.
An eight-member court could split on all of those issues.An eight-member court could split on all of those issues.
Scalia, 79, was the current court’s second-oldest and longest-serving justice, having joined in 1986. He was the cornerstone of the modern conservative legal establishment, known as a brilliant writer and an acerbic critic. It would seem to assure that the Supreme Court, often far down the list of voters’ concern when choosing a president, would become a prominent issue in the campaign.
Liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, soon to be 83, is the oldest member of the court, while Justice Anthony M. Kennedy is the same age as Scalia.
The jurist’s death leaves the court with three consistent conservatives — Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. — and Kennedy, like Scalia a Ronald Reagan appointee but one who often sides with the court’s liberals on social issues, such as same-sex marriage.
The court has four consistent liberals: Ginsburg plus Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
Despite their sharp ideological differences, the justices nevertheless often proclaim their personal affinity for one another, and it seemed especially true regarding Scalia.
Ginsburg, with whom he served as an appeals court judge, was his closest friend on the court, and he and Kagan bonded when he took her on hunting trips.
The Supreme Court provided no details of Scalia’s death, only a statement from Roberts after reports of his death from Texas news media.
[Live updates: Reactions to Justice Scalia’s death][Live updates: Reactions to Justice Scalia’s death]
He died while on a hunting trip in Texas. The Supreme Court did not reveal the cause of death. “On behalf of the court and retired justices, I am saddened to report that our colleague Justice Antonin Scalia has passed away,” Roberts said in the statement. “He was an extraordinary individual and jurist, admired and treasured by his colleagues. His passing is a great loss to the court and the country he so loyally served. We extend our deepest condolences to his wife Maureen and his family.”
The Associated Press reported that Scalia died at a private residence in the Big Bend area of West Texas. Donna Sellers, the service’s spokeswoman, said Scalia had retired for the evening and was found dead Saturday morning after he did not appear for breakfast. Scalia died at Cibolo Creek Ranch, a resort in the Big Bend area of Texas near the town of Shafter, according to a person in law enforcement.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. officially announced Scalia’s death after it was reported by news outlets in Texas. That person said Scalia did not appear for breakfast when the rest of the party did. People in the group thought he might be sleeping in, but eventually the host of the group became concerned and found him dead, the source said.
“On behalf of the court and retired justices, I am saddened to report that our colleague Justice Antonin Scalia has passed away,” Roberts said in a statement. Although the fate of Scalia’s successor seems likely to consume political Washington, the outcome of the many controversies will be complicated by an eight-member court. If the court ties in deciding a case, the decision of the appeals court remains in place, without setting a nationwide precedent.
“He was an extraordinary individual and jurist, admired and treasured by his colleagues. His passing is a great loss to the court and the country he so loyally served. We extend our deepest condolences to his wife Maureen and his family.” For instance, the court already was working with one less justice in a case involving the use of race in an admissions case at the University of Texas.
The White House issued a statement from principal deputy press secretary Eric Schultz: “This afternoon the President was informed of the passing of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. The President and First Lady extend their deepest condolences to Justice Scalia’s family. We’ll have additional reaction from the President later today.” Kagan sat out the case, presumably because she worked on the issue when she was Obama’s solicitor general. That means only seven justices would decide whether the appeals court was correct to uphold the program.
The fate of the many controversial issues before the court is unclear. If the court ties in deciding a case, the decision of the appeals court remains in place, without setting a nationwide precedent. The court is scheduled to hear in April arguments about Obama’s plan to shield more than 4 million illegal immigrants from deportation.
In the current cases, a tie vote would mean that the race-conscious admissions plan at the University of Texas would remain in place. And so would the abortion restrictions in that state that were upheld by an appeals court. The executive action was put on hold by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. A split court would uphold that decision and keep Obama from implementing it before he leaves office next January.
Likewise, Obama’s plan to shield millions of illegal immigrants from deportation would stay on hold, because that was the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. In the case of faith-based hospitals, colleges and charities that object to providing employees with contraceptives under the Affordable Care Act, the court is trying to sort out competing court decisions.
A decision on the contraceptive requirements in the health-care law would be more complicated in the event of a tie. Most appeals courts that have considered the issue have ruled for the Obama administration. But one went the other way. Most appeals courts that have decided the controversy found in favor of the Obama administration. But one did not. Presumably, a split court would mean the law is interpreted differently depending on the region of the country.
Regardless of the Senate’s action, a Republican Senate largely hostile to Obama would seem to limit the president’s choices. One candidate often mentioned for the high court is U.S. Circuit Judge Sri Srinivasan, who was nominated by Obama and confirmed unanimously by the Senate in 2013. Although Scalia was a polarizing figure, reaction to his death brought accolades even from those who disagreed vehemently with his view of the law.
But if Obama felt like a fight, a more liberal candidate might emerge. “His indomitable conviction and his fierce intelligence left a lasting imprint — not just on the way the Supreme Court resolves cases, but on the legal landscape that he helped to transform.,” Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch said in a statement. “A lion of American law has left the stage, and it is up to all of us — every American — to keep our national constitutional dialogue as lively and as learned as he left it.”
Paul Kane contributed to this report. Sari Horwitz and Paul Kane contributed to this report.