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 The White House turned up the heat on the Republican-led Senate to
allow fair hearings and a timely vote on Obama's impending selection
to fill the court vacancy left by Saturday's death of conservative
Justice Antonin Scalia.
The Democratic president's nominee could change the balance of power
on the top U.S. court - Scalia's death left it with four
conservative and four liberal justices - and a monumental fight is
brewing over Obama's pick for the lifetime appointment.
Republicans, led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, have
said Scalia's seat should remain vacant until Obama's successor
takes office next January so voters can have a say in the selection
when they cast ballots in the Nov. 8 presidential election. The
Senate must confirm any Supreme Court nominee.
"I, first of all, think that they're going to cave in," Senate
Democratic leader Harry Reid, speaking in Reno, Nevada, said of the
Republicans. "I think the president's going to give us a nominee
that's a good one, and I think they're going to have to hold
hearings and have a vote."
 Obama has argued the Senate has a constitutional duty to consider
his nominee.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest was put on the defensive over
Obama's actions a decade ago as a member of the Senate when he tried
to block the nomination put forward by his predecessor in the White
House, Republican George W. Bush, of conservative Samuel Alito to
the nation's highest court.
As a first-term senator from Illinois, Obama used a procedural
maneuver called a filibuster. Alito was confirmed anyway.
"Some Democrats engaged in a process of throwing sand in the gears
of the confirmation process. And that's an approach that the
president regrets," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told
reporters.
Earnest portrayed Obama's vote to try to block Alito as "symbolic"
and sought to contrast it to "Republicans' reflexive opposition" to
Obama nominating a justice to replace Scalia.
McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said the filibuster that Obama
joined undercut the White House's argument. 500,000 SIGNATURES
Liberal groups including MoveOn.org and the Progressive Change
Campaign Committee said in a conference call with reporters they
would mount a campaign to prod Republican senators to allow hearings
and a vote on Obama's nominee.
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They said they already had gathered some 500,000 petition signatures
opposing McConnell's stance. Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, who
chairs the Judiciary Committee that considers high court nominees,
has not ruled out holding hearings, although he has offered mixed
messages about how to proceed.
"Grassroots voices are going to be the key to making Senator
McConnell back off," Senator Chuck Schumer, a member of the Senate
Democratic leadership, told reporters.
Earnest declined to rule out that Obama would make a recess
appointment: naming someone to the job on a temporary basis while
the Senate is on a recess, bypassing the confirmation process.
The White House has been in touch with the offices of "multiple"
senators of both parties about the court vacancy, Earnest said.
During a speech at Yale Law School in Connecticut, liberal Justice
Stephen Breyer called for a moment of silence to honor Scalia,
telling the audience: "It's going to be a grayer place without him."
Earnest said Obama and first lady Michelle Obama would pay their
respects to Scalia on Friday when the late justice's body lies in
repose at the Supreme Court building. Earnest said Obama would not
go to Scalia's funeral Mass on Saturday in Washington but that Vice
President Joe Biden would attend.
The remaining eight justices have canceled a meeting set for Friday
to discuss action on future cases but are due next week to hear
scheduled oral arguments in pending cases.
(Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton, Doina Chiacu and Megan
Cassella in Washington and Joan Biskupic in New Haven, Conn.;
Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by Sandra Maler and Peter Cooney)
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