The Obama administration was plunged into turmoil following the sudden and unexplained death of Justice Antonin Scalia, the outspoken leader of the Supreme Court's conservative bloc.
Right after the announcement of his death was made on Saturday by Chief Justice Johh G. Roberts, Jr., partisan political battle erupted in Washington with President Barack Obama pledging to nominate a successor to Scalia "in due time," according to USA TODAY.
Democratic leaders also called for Scalia's immediate replacement, a plan strongly opposed by their Republican counterparts, The Washington Post reported.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) said in a statement that the Senate controlled by his party should not confirm a replacement for Scalia until after the November election.
"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.
Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nevada) held a different view. "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."
Scalia's shocking death also cast a pall of uncertainty on how the Supreme Court would deal with the most controversial issues facing America: 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.
With only eight members left, the Court could evenly split its votes on those issues. If a Supreme Court vote on an issue ends in a 4-4 deadlock, the decision of the appeals court remains in place, the Washington Post said.
Scalia, 79, was the Supreme Court's second-oldest and longest-serving justice, having joined in 1986.
He died while on a hunting trip in Texas. The Supreme Court did not reveal the cause of death.
"I am saddened to report that our colleague Justice Antonin Scalia has passed away," Chief Justice Roberts said in a 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."
Scalia's death was first reported on the website of the San Antonio Express News, which quoted an unnamed federal official as saying the justice apparently died of natural causes. Scalia had spent Friday quail hunting at Cibolo Creek Ranch, then went to bed. When he didn't appear for breakfast Saturday morning, a person went to his room and found him dead.
With his sharp intellect, Scalia was the champion among Republican conservatives and a villain for liberal Democrats.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican presidential hopeful, posted a statement on Facebook mourning the death of "one of the greatest justices in history."
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called the justice "the solid rock who turned away so many attempts to depart from and distort the Constitution."
