WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died of natural causes and no autopsy was necessary, a judge has told The Associated Press.
Chris Lujan, a manager for Sunset Funeral Homes in Texas, said the 79-year-old jurist’s body was taken from the El Paso facility late Sunday afternoon and was to be flown to Virginia, although he had no details. Scalia’s family didn’t think a private autopsy was necessary and requested that his remains be returned to Washington as soon as possible, Lujan said.
Presidio County Judge Cinderela Guevara told The Associated Press on Sunday she consulted with Scalia’s personal physician and sheriff’s investigators, who said there were no signs of foul play, before concluding that he had died of natural causes. He was found dead in his room at a West Texas resort ranch Saturday morning. Guevara says the declaration was made around 1:52 p.m. Saturday.
Terry Sharpe, assistant director for operations at El Paso International Airport, said a private plane carrying Scalia’s body departed around 8 p.m. EST Sunday. Scalia’s body was accompanied to the airport by U.S. marshals, he said. The body was returned to Virginia late Sunday.
Scalia’s weekend death was as much of a shock to those at the ranch as it was to the rest of the nation The owner of Cibolo Creek Ranch near Marfa, where Scalia died, said the justice seemed his usual self at dinner the night before he was found “in complete repose” in his room.
John Poindexter told reporters Scalia was part of a group of about 35 weekend guests. He arrived Friday around noon. The group had dinner Friday night and Scalia was his “usual, personable self,” Poindexter said. Scalia retired around 9 p.m., saying he wanted a long night’s sleep, according to Poindexter.
A procession that included about 20 law enforcement officers arrived in the early hours Sunday at the funeral home more than three hours from the ranch, Lujan said. Kristina Mills, a history teacher at nearby Chapin High School, came to the funeral home to pay her respects and brought flowers.
“Recognizing his contribution to serving our country just compelled me to come,” she said. “I wanted to do yellow roses because for him dying in Texas. I didn’t want his family to have bad memories of Texas.”
In the nation’s capital, where flags flew at half-staff at the White House and Supreme Court, the political sniping soared, raising the prospect of a court short-handed for some time. The Senate’s Republican leader, backed largely by his party’s White House candidates, essentially told a Democratic president in his final year in office not to bother asking lawmakers to confirm a nominee for the lifetime seat.
Scalia’s colleagues praised his brilliance and grieved his death. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said she and Scalia “were best buddies” for more than 30 years. Justice Clarence Thomas said, “It is hard to imagine the court without my friend.”
President Barack Obama ordered flags to be flown at half-staff at the high court, where Scalia served for three decades, and other federal buildings throughout the nation and U.S. embassies and military installations throughout the world.
While flags were being lowered, the campaign-year political heat has risen over the vacancy on the nine-member court. At issue is whether Obama, in his last year in office, should make a nomination and the Republican-led Senate should confirm that choice in an election year.
Obama pledges a nomination “in due time.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., thinks it should wait for the next president. The Republican resistance to an election-year confirmation got a thorough public airing on the GOP debate stage just hours after Scalia’s companions found him dead.
Republicans argued that Obama, as a lame duck, should not fill the vacancy created by Scalia’s death, but leave it to the next president — which they hope will be one of them. The Constitution gives the Senate “advice and consent” powers over a presidential nomination to the Supreme Court. Ted Cruz, one of the two GOP senators running for president, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the GOP-controlled Senate is doing its job.
“We’re advising that a lame-duck president in an election year is not going to be able to tip the balance of the Supreme Court,” Cruz said. But the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which would hold hearings on a nominee, said it would be “sheer dereliction of duty for the Senate not to have a hearing, not to have a vote.”
Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy told CNN’s “State of the Union” that he believes McConnell is “making a terrible mistake. And he’s certainly ignoring the Constitution.”
Natural causes my eye.
The family is probably too grieved (and possibly too pressured) to demand an autopsy, but I suspected murder as soon as I heard he was dead.
Any death that’s this politically convenient is murder. When you’re waiting for someone to die, they hang around forever.
Your first thought was murder and mine when I heard the family didn’t want an autopsy was they didn’t want any embarrassment for might be found in his system. 30 years in D.C. can corrupt anyone. Joking aside, it’s very convenient to have him out of the way.
“When you’re waiting for someone to die, they hang around forever.”
LOL… ain’t THAT the truth, JR!
According to what I’ve heard from some locals regarding Judge Cinderella Guevara of Presidio County in my neck of the woods, she is as corrupt as the day is long–as long as the case does not involve Mexicans! She may not be La Raza but she acts as though she is, which means of course that since Scalia was against immigration (supposedly) as well as amnesty (supposedly) and voted against ObamaCare, she had every reason to make sure an autopsy was never done. Further this happened as well when in 2014 a white teenager from Marfa died and Guevara refused to order an autopsy and did not tell the family it would not be ordered. Many don’t know much about Guevara’s corruption because Presidio County is about 80 percent Mexican (the border town of Presidio is nearly 100 percent Mexican, with Marfa close to 65 percent…most of the whites are “artsy-fartsy” types). Hopefully knowing folks who work in Marfa I can learn more of the truth about this, but from the time I read the headlines about this death I was pretty sure he was assassinated so Obama could appoint another justice that would vote to take our guns.
I have to totally agree again with Jolly R and DL on this one. I immediately felt it was assassination. With Scalia out of the way, the left has an easier time bringing on the commie agenda. This is especially true if the rinos capitulate again by allowing the clown to nominate Scalia’s replacement. I wouldn’t be surprised if another supreme court justice doesn’t survive the year. Leftists don’t value the lives of their enemies.
seems strange,,found peacefully laying,,hands folded,,pillow over head. Sounds more like someone found him dead and placed him in a respectful pose to be found. Obviously if you were going to smother him and make it look like natural causes one would think taking the pillow off his face might be a no brainer.
What’s next? A burial at sea? How much more obvious can they make this?
“Republicans argued that Obama, as a lame duck, should not fill the vacancy created by Scalia’s death, but leave it to the next president — which they hope will be one of them.”
Not unless Hitlery jumps ship.
“Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy told CNN’s “State of the Union” that he believes McConnell is “making a terrible mistake. And he’s certainly ignoring the Constitution.”
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
NAME ONE DAMN POLITICIAN IN THE ENTIRE COUNTRY WHO ISN’T, @SSWIPE!!!
All things considered, I’d say the odds he WASN’T murdered are slim to none.