Scalia’s casket brought to Supreme Court

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Hundreds of people lined the streets in front of the Supreme Court Friday as the body of the late Justice Antonin Scalia was brought to the court to lie in repose in the Great Hall.

U.S. Supreme Court police officers served as pallbearers, carrying the casket draped in an American flag up the front steps of the courthouse. Scalia died last Saturday at the age of 79 while on a hunting trip in Texas.

{mosads}Father Paul Scalia, Justice Scalia’s son, who is a Catholic priest, offered a prayer over the closed coffin after it was placed on the Lincoln Catafalque.

“May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace,” he said.

The leading conservative voice on the court, Scalia’s death has ignited a mammoth fight over who should replace him in the heat of a presidential election cycle. President Obama has promised to make a nomination despite Republican threats to block the nominee.  

Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are expected to pay their respects at the court sometime Friday. They will not be attendance at Scalia’s funeral on Saturday. 

The funeral Mass for family and friends on Saturday will be held at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception starting at 11 a.m. A private burial will follow. In lieu of flowers the family has requested that donation be made to either the Supreme Court Historical Society, the Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Arlington or the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles.

Dignitaries, legal scholars, friends and family members filed by the casket to pay their respects Friday. In the days following his death, Scalia has been hailed as a legal giant who will shape generations of attorneys to come.

The associate justice is best known for his love of the opera, a passion he shared with his close friend and colleague Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and for his originalist view of the Constitution. He often argued against a “living” interpretation of the document.

Tags Antonin Scalia Michelle Obama Supreme Court of the United States

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