Within hours of the dramatic announcement of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s death on Saturday, battle lines were drawn over whether President Barack Obama or the next president should name his replacement.

“I plan to fulfill my constitutional duty” to name a replacement, Obama said in televised remarks Saturday night, though he did not give a timetable. Pointedly, Obama also said that the importance of having a fully functioning high court is “bigger than any party.”

Obama went on to express sympathy to Scalia’s family, extolling his “larger than life presence” as one of the most “consequential thinkers” in the court’s history.
The fact that a Scalia replacement could affect the court’s jurisprudence for decades to come guarantees that the high court, usually a non-issue in presidential campaigns, will become an even more critical point of debate and discord in the months ahead than it already has.

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