Thousands of mourners paid their respects Saturday to late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who died last week at age 79.
Scalia’s casket arrived at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington shortly after 11 a.m. ET. The late justice’s son, Paul Scalia, will deliver Mass for his father, and Justice Clarence Thomas, a longtime friend of Scalia’s, will give a reading from Romans 5:5-11, according to the funeral program.
Chief Justice John Roberts, Justices Elena Kagan, Stephen Breyer, Samuel Alito, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, as well as retired Justice John Paul Stevens and former Solicitor General Ted Olson, are in attendance. Vice President Joe Biden and former Vice President Dick Cheney also attended, as did former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, and several members of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, including Sri Srinivasan and Patricia Millett, who have been floated as potential nominees to replace Scalia on the high court, are also there. Texas senator and Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, who served as a law clerk to former Chief Justice William Rehnquist, arrived along with his wife, Heidi.
Absent was President Obama. He and first lady Michelle Obama were there at the Supreme Court building Friday to view Scalia’s casket as he laid in repose.
Scalia, the leading conservative voice on the high court, died in his sleep last Saturday during a visit to Texas. His death set off an immediate debate about whether Obama should fill the seat in an election year.
