Obama pledges qualified nominee for Supreme Court

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. - President Obama on Tuesday vowed to nominate an "indisputably qualified" candidate to the Supreme Court, forcefully rejecting Republican calls that he cede the pick to his successor because the court vacancy comes late in his presidency and in the middle of an election year.

"There's no unwritten law that says it can only be done on off years," Obama said at news conference marking the end of a summit with Southeast Asian leaders. The news conference focused exclusively on domestic political concerns and Mideast strife, and was dominated by questions about picking a successor for Justice Antonin Scalia, who died last weekend while on a hunting trip in Texas. "That's not in the constitutional text. I'm amused when I hear people who claim to be strict interpreters of the Constitution suddenly reading into it a whole series of provisions that are not there."

"I intend to do my job between now and January 20 of 2017," Obama said at the news conference. He said of the nation's senators, "I expect them to do their job as well."

The president cast the standoff as more evidence of Washington dysfunction, saying the process will test whether Congress can rise above its recent history of partisan rancor to complete a fundamental constitutional task.

Obama, who himself participated in an unsuccessful filibuster aimed at blocking the 2006 nomination of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., said "venom and rancor" have become commonplace in the Senate's consideration of presidential appointees. He acknowledged that both parties were to blame.

"It's not something that I have spent a huge amount of time talking about, because frankly the American people, on average, they're more interested in gas prices and wages and issues that touch on their day-to-day lives in a more direct way, so it doesn't get a lot of political attention," he said. "But this is the Supreme Court, and it's going to get some attention."

Obama's remarks came as a handful of key Republicans were expressing a willingness to hold hearings on a potential nominee, creating some confusion on the party's position. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's office said the chamber's Republicans were united in opposing any new Obama appointee to the Supreme Court, but comments from other key lawmakers suggested the possibility of a compromise.

In a conference call with reporters Tuesday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R., Iowa) said he "would wait until the nominee is made before I would make any decision" on whether to hold hearings on the president's candidate. "In other words, take it a step at a time."

Grassley, who is up for reelection, added that election-year politics would not figure in his decision.

"I think I have a responsibility to perform, and I can't worry about the election," he said. "I've got to do my job as a senator, whatever it is. And there will be a lot of tough votes between now and the next election."

Another member of the Judiciary Committee, freshman Sen. Thom Tillis (R., N.C.), noted that Republicans could not expect Obama to choose a nominee in the mold of Scalia, who for almost 30 years has been the ideological leader of the court's conservative bloc. Speaking on The Tyler Cralle Show on WAAV in Wilmington, N.C., Tillis said that Republicans should worry about coming across as blocking the president out of partisan spite.

"I think we fall into the trap if we just simply say 'Sight unseen' " the Senate won't consider the nominee, Tillis said, "we fall into the trap of being obstructionist."

With Republicans struggling to stake out a unified position, Senate Democrats predicted that the GOP would cave and allow full committee hearings and a confirmation vote on an eventual nominee.

"This is a huge overreach by Leader McConnell," Sen. Charles E. Schumer, the number-three Democratic leader, said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

But Republicans inclined to hold a vote on the nomination are sure to face a political backlash on the right.

FreedomWorks Foundation executive director Curt Levey told reporters Tuesday that "certain Republican senators" in the past have been "too eager to seem bipartisan right after a nominee is announced. ... We are encouraging these senators to keep their powder dry and not say anything."

As the political debate swirled, White House officials continued to deliberate on possible nominees. The president conferred with his aides while in California for the two-day meeting with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

This article contains information from the Associated Press.

Justice Antonin Scalia's body will lie in repose Friday at the Supreme Court, followed by a funeral service Saturday at the nation's largest Catholic church.

Scalia's casket will be on public view in the court's Great Hall from 10:30 a.m. until 8 p.m. on Friday, court officials said. A private ceremony will take place at the court at 9:30 a.m.

Current and retired justices are expected to line the marble steps as the casket is carried through the court's main entrance, below the inscription "Equal Justice Under Law."

The funeral Mass Saturday will take place at 11 a.m. at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. It will be open to family and friends.

Scalia's courtroom chair has been draped in black, a Supreme Court tradition that dates to the 19th century.

- APEndText