The White House has confirmed that President Barack Obama will not be attending the funeral of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, 79, this Saturday at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D.C.
Instead, Obama was reportedly scheduled to play golf that day, WND reported.
Vice President Joe Biden will represent Obama at the funeral, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said on Wednesday.
Obama, however, will view Scalia's body on Friday while it lies in repose in the Great Hall of the Supreme Court building, Earnest told reporters.
Earnest was asked on Obama's potential golf plans, but he skirted the issue and discussed instead Scalia's 30 years of service in the judiciary.
WND noted that former president George W. Bush attended Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist's funeral in 2005 and even gave a eulogy.
Scalia died last Saturday of "natural causes" during a visit to a private residence near the Cibolo Creek Ranch near Shafter, Texas. Scalia was one of the guests of a wealthy Democrat Party donor named John Poindexter, who also owns the ranch resort.
Photographs posted in the blog DC Whispers showing Obama shaking hands with Poindexter have fuelled conspiracy theories that prompted radio host Michael Savage to ask: "Was [Scalia] murdered?"
The blog says Poindexter received an award from Obama for his Vietnam military service, according to WND.
"It has been long-standing policy for the Obama administration to grant presidential awards to those who are among the president's most prized political donors," DC Whispers wrote. "It was Poindexter who reportedly was among those who initially discovered the justice's body, and who then coordinated with local officials to have Justice Scalia declared dead via a phone conversation with the area medical examiner, but without an actual medical examination of the body."
Texas Judge Cinderela Guevara initially determined an autopsy should be performed on Scalia's body, according to the Associated Press. However, she changed her mind when Scalia's doctor confirmed he had a history of heart troubles and when emergency officials responding to the scene of his death said no foul play was suspected.
Meanwhile, the immigration watchdog group Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC) defended its call on Sunday for an immediate autopsy and toxicology report on Scalia's body.
ALIPAC's President William Gheen raised suspicion on Scalia's sudden death. "Scalia was considered to be a solid vote against Obama's amnesty orders that 26 states including Texas are suing to stop as well as many other lawsuits relevant to Obama's agenda," he said.
"The Supreme Court was expected to vote on Obama's clearly unconstitutional amnesty orders in the next few weeks, making Scalia one of Obama's main political stumbling blocks since GOP Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and many other Republican lawmakers in Congress have recently capitulated to Obama and voted to fund all his programs with the Omnibus funding bill last December."
However, if foul play or accidental poisoning was involved with the death of Scalia, much of that evidence has already been destroyed or corrupted when his body was washed and embalmed at a funeral home less than 24 hours after his body was discovered, WND reported.
