EL PASO - 
 
 UPDATE SUNDAY 4:39 P.M: The body of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has been transported from Sunset Funeral Homes in Northeast El Paso to an airport. 
 
 UPDATE SUNDAY 2 PM: The Presidio County Judge Cinderela Guevara told Dallas ABC affiliate WFAA that the death certificate will list a heart attack as the official cause of death for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. 
 
 
 
 UPDATE: U.S. Marshals, along with DPS officials are escorting the body of late Justice Antonin Scalia to Sunset Funeral Home. The funeral home was selected by his family, according to the funeral director there. He tells us Scalia will be there until tomorrow while they prepare and embalm the body. 
 
 ABC-7 has confirmed the body of the late Justice Antonin Scalia will be delivered to Sunset Funeral Home in northeast El Paso sometime early Sunday morning. It will then be prepared for the trip back to Washington. The body will be driven, not flown, from Marfa, Texas. 
 
 EL PASO -- An El Paso source close to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia tells ABC-7 that the 79-year-old died in his sleep last night after a day of quail hunting at Cibolo Creek Ranch outside of Marfa, Texas. 
 
 
 
 The Justice did not report feeling ill and retired to his room after dinner. The source, who was traveling with Scalia, told ABC-7 a priest was summoned to administer last rites. 
 
 El Paso Catholic Diocese Spokeswoman Elizabeth O'Hara tells ABC-7 Catholic Priest Mike Alcuino, in Presidio, was called to the ranch, where he administered Justice Scalia's last rites Saturday afternoon. 
 
 
 
 Scalia was the longest-serving Justice on the current Supreme Court at the time of his death. He was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, and was unanimously confirmed without a nomination fight to become the Court's first Italian-American justice. 
 
 Scalia and his wife, Maureen, had nine children. Born in Trenton, New Jersey March 11, 1936, he was less than a month from his eightieth birthday. 
 
 The issue of his replacement is virtually certain to a major political story during a presidential election year. ABC-7 managing editor Eric Huseby said, "Republican senators will be under enormous pressure from their donors and electoral base to refuse to confirm an appointment from President Obama that would tip the balance of the Court to a 5-4 majority of Democratic appointees. And the President will surely do all he can to make that position as politically unpalatable and costly as possible." 
 
 Tom Goldstein, who writes about the Supreme Court for SCOTUSBLOG.com doubted that confirmation before the election is possible. "Theoretically, that process could conclude before the election," he wrote Saturday. "But realistically, it cannot absent essentially a consensus nominee - and probably not even then, given the stakes. " 
 
 Scalia's legacy is enormous. CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said Scalia was one of the "handful of most influential Supreme Court justices in history." He was the Court's leading originalist, fiercely dedicated to the idea that the meaning of the words in the Constitution are fixed based on the framers' understanding at the time they were drafted, and not subject to reinterpretation in later times. 
 
 He argued passionately against the contemporary idea of a “living Constitution" that evolves and changes with the times. 
 
 “The Constitution is not an organism. It’s a legal text,” Scalia was quoted as saying in a recent Bloomberg Business article. “It means today what it meant when it was adopted.” 
 
 His wit, sarcasm and passion for intellectual battle were legendary as well. In his dissent against last year's landmark ruling affirming the right to same-sex marriage, he concluded a passage questioning the majority assertion that marriage promotes a freedom of intimacy by suggesting that marriage has historically tended to restrict options for intimacy, and suggesting that people, "Ask the nearest hippie." 
 
 Here is the complete text of a statement issued by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr.: 
 
 "On behalf of the Court and retired Justices, I am saddened to report that our colleague Justice Antonin Scalia has passed away. 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. We extend our deepest condolences to his wife Maureen and his family." 
 
 Here is the complete text of a statement issued by Texas Governor Greg Abbott: 
 
 "Justice Antonin Scalia was a man of God, a patriot, and an unwavering defender of the written Constitution and the Rule of Law. He was the solid rock who turned away so many attempts to depart from and distort the Constitution. His fierce loyalty to the Constitution set an unmatched example, not just for judges and lawyers, but for all Americans. We mourn his passing, and we pray that his successor on the Supreme Court will take his place as a champion for the written Constitution and the Rule of Law. Cecilia and I extend our deepest condolences to his family, and we will keep them in our thoughts and prayers." ||||| U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia found dead at West Texas ranch 
 
 Associate Justice Antonin Scalia was found dead of apparent natural causes Saturday on a luxury resort in West Texas, federal officials said. 
 
 Scalia, 79, was a guest at the Cibolo Creek Ranch, a resort in the Big Bend region south of Marfa. 
 
 Scalia arrived at the 30,000-acre ranch on Friday and attended a private party with about 40 people that night, according to a federal official. 
 
 He left the party and retired to bed earlier than others, according to Donna Sellers, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Marshals Service. 
 
 When he failed to appear at breakfast, a person involved with the ranch went to his room, where he discovered his body. A priest was called to administer last rites. 
 
 A federal official, who asked not to be named, said there was no evidence of foul play and it appeared that Scalia died of natural causes. 
 
 RELATED: Inside the West Texas ranch where Antonin Scalia was found dead 
 
 Chief U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia, of the Western Judicial District of Texas, was notified about the death from the U.S. Marshals Service. 
 
 U.S. District Judge Fred Biery said he was among those notified about Scalia's death. 
 
 "I was told it was this morning," Biery said of Scalia's death. "It happened on a ranch out near Marfa. As far as the details, I think it's pretty vague right now as to how," he said. "My reaction is it's very unfortunate. It's unfortunate with any death, and politically in the presidential cycle we're in, my educated guess is nothing will happen before the next president is elected." 
 
 RELATED: Ted Cruz, Donald Trump among those to react to Scalia's death on social media 
 
 The U.S. Marshal Service, the Presidio County sheriff and the FBI were involved in the investigation. 
 
 Officials with the law enforcement agencies declined to comment. 
 
 A gray Cadillac hearse pulled into the ranch Saturday afternoon and left about 5 p.m. The hearse came from Alpine Memorial Funeral Home. 
 
 Scalia's body was taken to El Paso, where it will be escorted back the nation's capital by U.S. marshals and U.S. Supreme Court Police. 
 
 RELATED: Scalia 'respected and idealized' by St. Mary's law students 
 
 Texas Gov. Greg Abbott released a statement Saturday afternoon, calling Scalia a man of God, a patriot and an "unwavering defender of the written Constitution." 
 
 "He was the solid rock who turned away so many attempts to depart from and distort the Constitution," Abbott said. "We mourn his passing, and we pray that his successor on the Supreme Court will take his place as a champion for the written Constitution and the Rule of Law. Cecilia and I extend our deepest condolences to his family, and we will keep them in our thoughts and prayers." 
 
 Scalia's death has far-reaching implications for the Supreme Court and a round of major cases the justices are set to decide this summer, including Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, which challenges the university's affirmative action policy, plus a case that contests Obama's immigration policy and another that reexamines the meaning of "one person, one vote," said former U.S. Rep. Charlie Gonzalez. 
 
 RELATED: Key opinions by Justice Antonin Scalia 
 
 President Barack Obama is unlikely to successfully name a new justice to replace Scalia before his second presidential term ends, Gonzalez said, because Congress will block any appointment he tries to make. 
 
 "I don't see that the Republican-led Senate would confirm anybody chosen by President Obama," Gonzalez said. 
 
 Gonzalez only met Scalia once, when he spotted the justice walking in the U.S. Capital to view a Supreme Court exhibit. Gonzalez asked him how Scalia was doing; Scalia said, "Fine." 
 
 "I prevailed in my only exchange with the Supreme Court," Gonzalez said. 
 
 The death immediately became an issue in the presidential race as during a GOP debate Saturday night, five of the six candidates taking part urged Republicans to block any attempt by the president to get his third nominee on the court. 
 
 Only Jeb Bush said Obama had "every right" to nominate a justice during his final year in office. 
 
 President Obama, in remarks to the nation, praised Scalia as a brilliant legal mind who influenced a generation of lawyers and students. 
 
 The President also announced his intentions to nominate a successor, saying he plans to fulfill his constitutional responsibility to fill the vacancy. 
 
 Scalia was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1986 by President Ronald Reagan. 
 
 Staff writers Vianna Davila, Tyler White, Richard A. Marini and John MacCormack and the Associated Press contributed to this report. ||||| Follow CBSDFW.COM: Facebook | Twitter 
 
 AUSTIN (CBSDFW.COM) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia “a man of God, a patriot and an unwavering defender of the written Constitution and the Rule of Law” in a statement issued Saturday afternoon that said the 79-year-old justice has died. 
 
 CBS News tweeted Scalia was found dead at a West Texas ranch. 
 
 BREAKING: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia found dead at West Texas ranch at 79 — CBS News (@CBSNews) February 13, 2016 
 
 CBS News reported Scalia “appeared to die of natural causes,” according to a U.S. Marshals Service spokesperson. 
 
 The replacement for Scalia, who was a fierce conservative on the court, would be President Barack Obama’s third Supreme Court nomination, CBS News reported. Former President Ronald Reagan nominated Scalia to the court in 1986. 
 
 Many current and former political officials — including Abbott, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former President George W. Bush — weighed in with statements of mourning following reports of the justice’s death. 
 
 Cruz, who is vying for the Republican presidential nomination, tweeted, “We owe it to [Scalia], and the nation, for the Senate to ensure that the next president names his replacement.” 
 
 Justice Scalia was an American hero. We owe it to him, & the Nation, for the Senate to ensure that the next President names his replacement. — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) February 13, 2016 
 
 In his statement, Cruz said Scalia “will go down as one of the few justices who single-handedly changed the course of legal history.” 
 
 “As liberals and conservatives alike would agree, through his powerful and persuasive opinions, Justice Scalia fundamentally changed how courts interpret the Constitution and statutes, returning the focus to the original meaning of the text after decades of judicial activism,” Cruz’s statement continued. “He was an unrelenting defender of religious liberty, free speech, federalism, the constitutional separation of powers and private property rights. All liberty-loving Americans should be in mourning.” 
 
 Abbott said Scalia set an example for citizens. 
 
 “His fierce loyalty to the Constitution set an unmatched example, not just for judges and lawyers, but for all Americans,” Abbott’s statement continued. “We mourn his passing, and we pray that his successor on the Supreme Court will take his place as a champion for the written Constitution and the Rule of Law. Cecilia and I extend our deepest condolences to his family, and we will keep them in our thoughts and prayers.” 
 
 Bush said Scalia will be missed. 
 
 “Laura and I mourn the death of a brilliant jurist and important American, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia,” Bush’s statement said. “He was a towering figure and important judge on our nation’s highest court. He brought intellect, good judgment and wit to the bench, and he will be missed by his colleagues and our country.” 
 
 North Texas Congressman Pete Sessions commented on Twitter about Scalia’s legacy. 
 
 Justice Scalia's legacy is clear – he renewed our nation's belief in the rule of law and reinvigorated how we view the Constitution. — Pete Sessions (@PeteSessions) February 13, 2016 
 
 “I pray that future generations of American patriots will continue to champion the Constitution like Justice Scalia did, and I pray for his family during this difficult time,” Sessions said in a statement. 
 
 Sen. John Cornyn called Scalia “brilliant, principled and resolute in his beliefs.” 
 
 “The author of some of the most consequential and best-written Supreme Court opinions, Justice Scalia will be remembered as a giant of American jurisprudence,” Cornyn’s statement read. “Justice Scalia’s commitment to the law was unwavering, and his devotion to his faith and to his family was unquestionable. Sandy and I are saddened by today’s news, and our thoughts and prayers are with his family during this difficult time.” 
 
 Presidential contenders other than Cruz offered thoughts on Twitter regarding Scalia’s death, as well. 
 
 The totally unexpected loss of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is a massive setback for the Conservative movement and our COUNTRY! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 13, 2016 
 
 Jeanette & I mourn the loss of Justice Scalia, and our thoughts & prayers are with his wife Maureen & his family. pic.twitter.com/e03KRZRM6q — Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 13, 2016 
 
 My thoughts and prayers are with Justice Scalia's family and his colleagues on the court who mourn his passing. pic.twitter.com/Y51xUMMEId — Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) February 13, 2016 
 
 Gov. Kasich's statement on the passing of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. pic.twitter.com/MAypwTGQR2 — John Kasich (@JohnKasich) February 13, 2016 
 
 Statement on the passing of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia: pic.twitter.com/xazj9dDd5c — Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) February 14, 2016 
 
 My statement on the sad loss of a great man, Justice Scalia: https://t.co/H3GGBgk6LH — Dr. Ben Carson (@RealBenCarson) February 14, 2016 
 
 At Mass, Columba & I prayed for Justice Scalia, who was devout in 
 
 faith and has been brought home to God in heaven. https://t.co/Bumxa6Ikrs — Jeb Bush (@JebBush) February 14, 2016 
 
 (©2016 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.) ||||| CLOSE Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, the longest-serving justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, was found dead at a Texas ranch at the age of 79. VPC 
 
 Associate Justice Antonin Scalia pictured in 2003, was an outspoken leader of the Supreme Court's conservative bloc. He was found dead at a Texas ranch Saturday morning. He was 79. (Photo: Tim Dillon, USA TODAY) 
 
 WASHINGTON — Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, the loquacious leader of the Supreme Court's conservative bloc and a leading force in American life for three decades, was found dead at a Texas ranch Saturday morning, kicking off a fierce battle over the future of the high court. 
 
 "I am saddened to report that our colleague Justice Antonin Scalia has passed away," Chief Justice John 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." 
 
 President Obama said he would attempt to fill the vacancy, defying Senate Republicans who argued he should leave that responsibility to the next president in 2017. "I plan to fulfill my constitutional responsibilities to nominate a successor in due time," he said. 
 
 The flag outside the Supreme Court was lowered to half mast, and Obama ordered all flags on federal property similarly lowered until Scalia's burial. 
 
 The death was first reported on the website of the San Antonio Express News, which quoted an unnamed federal official saying the justice apparently died of natural causes. Scalia, 79, had spent Friday quail hunting at Cibolo Creek Ranch, then went to bed. When he didn't appear for breakfast Saturday, a person went to his room and found the justice's body. 
 
 Over nearly three decades on the high court, Scalia's sharp intellect and acerbic opinions made him a hero to conservatives and a target for liberals. Yet he also was a close friend to a leader of the court's liberal wing, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. 
 
 Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a 2016 Republican presidential hopeful and himself a former clerk on the Supreme Court, 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." 
 
 Obama could nominate a candidate to fill the vacancy, but winning confirmation by the Republican-controlled Senate in an election year would be difficult, if not impossible. The opening immediately fueled a debate in the presidential campaign about the importance of choosing his successor on a closely divided court; Republican candidates agreed in debate Saturday night that the choice should await the election. 
 
 "The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a statement. "Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new President." 
 
 But Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada countered in a tweet, "Would be unprecedented in recent history for SCOTUS to go year with vacancy. And shameful abdication of our constitutional responsibility." 
 
 The debate over Scalia's successor was raging on social-media platforms just hours after his death was first reported. 
 
 "What is less than zero?" Conn Carroll, the communications director for Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, a member of the Judiciary Committee and himself a potential future Supreme Court nominee, posted on Twitter. "The chances of Obama successfully appointing a Supreme Court Justice to replace Scalia." 
 
 Ed Whelan, a former Scalia law clerk and leading conservative on legal issues, argued it would be inappropriate for Obama to name Scalia's replacement in an election year. 
 
 "It’s been more than 80 years since a Supreme Court justice was confirmed in an election year to a vacancy that arose that year, and there has never been an election-year confirmation that would so dramatically alter the ideological composition of the court," Whelan said. "Senate Republicans would be grossly irresponsible to allow President Obama, in the last months of his presidency, to cement a liberal majority that will wreak havoc on the Constitution. Let the people decide in November who will select the next justice." 
 
 In this June 17, 1986, file photo, President Ronald Reagan speaks at a news briefing at the White House in Washington, where he announced the nomination of Antonin Scalia, left, to the Supreme Court as a result of Chief Justice Warren E. Burger's resignation. William Rehnquist is at right. (Photo: Ron Edmonds, AP) 
 
 APPOINTED BY REAGAN 
 
 During his three decades on the court, Scalia managed to steer the federal judiciary toward his twin theories of “originalism” and “textualism” -- strictly reading the Constitution and federal statutes to mean what their authors intended, and nothing more. Yet he leaves with more disappointments than achievements and a legacy written in acerbic dissents. 
 
 The first Italian-American to serve on the court when he was named by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, “Nino” Scalia established himself as a firm opponent of abortion, gay rights and racial preferences. He was the lone dissenter when the court opened the Virginia Military Institute to women and consistently opposed affirmative action policies at universities and workplaces. When the court struck down the key section of the federal Defense of Marriage Act in 2013, he angrily predicted that it would lead to same-sex marriage -- and in 2015, he was proved right. 
 
 On the winning side of the ledger, Scalia was best known for authoring the court’s 2008 ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller upholding the right of citizens to keep guns at home for self-defense. The 5-4 decision, he said, was “the most complete originalist opinion that I’ve ever written.” 
 
 But Scalia’s sharp-elbows brand of conservatism more often showed up in testily worded dissents and even what The New York Times labeled “furious concurrences,” in which he agreed with the end result but ranted about the reasoning. 
 
 “Dissents are where you can really say what you believe and say it with the force you think it deserves,” he said. And if they prove correct years later, he went on, it “makes you feel good.” 
 
 That was the case in Morrison v. Olson, in which the court upheld Congress’ establishment of an independent counsel within the executive branch but beyond the president’s control. Scalia, as the lone dissenter in just his second term, said it infringed on presidential power. 
 
 “Frequently an issue of this sort will come before the court clad, so to speak, in sheep's clothing,” he wrote of the balance-of-powers issue. “But this wolf comes as a wolf.” 
 
 In time, many conservatives and liberals came to distrust the power given to independent counsels, including Kenneth Starr, whose four-year investigation of President Clinton culminated in his impeachment. Congress let the law expire in 1999. 
 
 “It turns out that everything that Justice Scalia says in that opinion … is true,” his liberal colleague, Justice Elena Kagan, said recently. 
 
 Scalia also dissented vehemently from a 2012 ruling in an Arizona case that restricted the rights of states to regulate immigration. “You’re not a sovereign state if you can’t control your borders,” he groused. 
 
 This Oct. 5, 2011, file photo shows Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia making a rare appearance on Capitol Hill to testify before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on "Considering the Role of Judges Under the Constitution of the United States." (Photo: Jim Lo Scalzo, European Pressphoto Agency) 
 
 NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER 
 
 He opposed the president and favored Congress in the more recent test of President Obama’s recess appointments power. While agreeing with the court’s majority that Obama exceeded his authority by going around the Senate to name members to the National Labor Relations Board, Scalia argued that such power should be limited far more than the court allowed. 
 
 "The majority practically bends over backward to ensure that recess appointments will remain a powerful weapon in the president's arsenal," he wrote. "That is unfortunate, because the recess appointment power is an anachronism." 
 
 Never one to compromise his principles, Scalia spent most of his career on the court watching helplessly as its moderate members -- Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and, later, Anthony Kennedy -- cut the deals that led to majority opinions on issues such as abortion and gay rights. 
 
 His objections, he said recently, were not based on policy views but on “who decides” -- and his answer almost invariably was the Constitution, the Congress or the president, not unelected judges with lifetime appointments like himself. 
 
 “Don’t paint me as anti-gay or anti-abortion or anything else,” he said. “We are a democracy. Majority rules.” 
 
 Despite his sometimes petulant personality, which he used on occasion to berate unprepared litigators standing alone at the lectern, Scalia was popular with his colleagues. He maintained close friendships with liberals such as Kagan and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, with whom he bonded in the 1980s when they served together on a federal appeals court. 
 
 Ginsburg recently recalled listening to Scalia deliver a speech to the American Bar Association. She disagreed with the thesis, she said, but "thought he said it in an absolutely captivating way." 
 
 Kagan, whom Scalia taught to hunt for ducks, deer and other game, called him "funny and charming and super-intelligent and witty." 
 
 “If you can’t disagree on the law without taking it personally,” Scalia was fond of saying, “find another day job.” 
 
 In this April 7, 2004, file photo, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia speaks to Presbyterian Christian High School students in Hattiesburg, Miss. (Photo: Gavin Averill, AP) 
 
 A STICKLER FOR LANGUAGE 
 
 Scalia’s entire career on the high court was spent alongside two chief justices -- William Rehnquist, a nominee of President Richard Nixon who became chief when Scalia joined the court in 1987, and John Roberts, who took over upon Rehnquist’s death in 2005. 
 
 Scalia harbored faint hopes of getting the top job then but acknowledged that, at 69, he was too old to give President George W. Bush a chief justice who might serve for several decades. Roberts, at 50, fit the bill. 
 
 Instead, Scalia’s claim to fame remained his reliance on the plain language of the Constitution and congressional statutes to guide his decision-making. The founding documents, he said, should not be subject to “whimsical change” by five judges. 
 
 “The Constitution means what the people felt that it meant when they ratified it,” he said. “Only in law do we say that the original meaning doesn’t matter.” 
 
 While he faced difficulty convincing liberal members of the court to follow his lead on the Constitution, he had more luck when it came to statutory interpretation. “He has won that battle,” Kagan said. 
 
 On the bench, Scalia was one of the court’s most active and incisive questioners. Virtually every year, he led all justices in quips that elicited laughter in the courtroom, according to careful tabulations by Boston University law professor Jay Wexler. 
 
 Along with Ginsburg and Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the high court’s first Hispanic member, Scalia also was a hot ticket on the speaking circuit. He was the inspiration for several theatrical endeavors, including a play, The Originalist, which ran for three months to rave reviews in Washington, D.C., and a comic opera, Scalia/Ginsburg. 
 
 ‘INTELLECTUAL THRUST AND PARRY’ 
 
 While the Heller decision on the right to bear arms was perhaps Scalia’s most famous, he later admitted that the right is not unlimited. Many states impose restrictions on firearms outside the home, such as requiring a demonstrated need to carry a gun, whether concealed or in plain sight. Most lower courts have upheld those restrictions. 
 
 “There are doubtless limits – but what they are, we will see,” he said. Still, he waxed sentimental about the days when, as a student, he could carry a .22-caliber rifle on the New York City subways. 
 
 At times hard to categorize, Scalia joked that he “should be the pin-up for the criminal defense bar” because of his oft-stated defense of the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures and his belief that defendants have the right to confront their accusers in court. 
 
 Inside the marble-columned courtroom, Scalia led the way toward more intense interaction between the justices and lawyers. Only his ideological soul mate, Justice Clarence Thomas, refuses to participate in the rapid-fire questioning. 
 
 “It’s a very noisy court, not just me,” Scalia said. Another time, he acknowledged that “I often ask a question just for the hell of it.” 
 
 “I really do enjoy oral argument,” he said. “The intellectual thrust and parry -- it’s almost like an English play.” 
 
 Yet he despised displays of overt partisanship, such as those at the president’s annual State of the Union addresses. Scalia boycotted the event for many years, arguing that for the justices to sit quietly in the front row gives “dignity to a childish spectacle.” 
 
 He was never a fan of the media, complaining that most news reports of the court’s work focused only on the result, rather than the underlying reasoning. He imposed strict limits on press access at his public appearances and remained a firm opponent of letting cameras into court. 
 
 “It will be ‘man bites dog,’” he said of the imagined spectacle. “Why should I participate in the mis-education of the American people?” 
 
 Justice Antonin Scalia speaks about the death penalty at Georgetown University on Feb. 4, 2002, during Jesuit Heritage Week. (Photo: Jacqueline Roggenbrodt, AP) 
 
 A PROUD AND PRODUCTIVE LIFE 
 
 Antonin Gregory Scalia was born March 11, 1936, in Trenton, N.J., the only child of a Sicilian immigrant father and second-generation Italian mother. His family moved to the borough of Queens in New York City during his childhood, and he established himself as a devout Catholic and a quick study in school. 
 
 After graduating from Georgetown University, Scalia said, “I had no idea what I wanted to do.” He chose law school and “just loved it ... everything about it is what I liked to do.” 
 
 Scalia graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1960 and spent seven years in private practice before yearning for academia. He taught for five years at the University of Virginia School of Law, then worked for the Nixon and Gerald Ford administrations in a variety of jobs, culminating as assistant attorney general in charge of the Office of Legal Counsel. 
 
 After Democrat Jimmy Carter’s election in 1976, Scalia returned to academia at the University of Chicago Law School, where he became one of the first faculty advisers to the fledgling Federalist Society, now the institutional bulwark of conservative legal doctrine. 
 
 Reagan’s election gave him a shot to become U.S. solicitor general, whose job it is to represent the federal government before the Supreme Court. He lost out but in 1982 was named to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, a well-worn stepping-stone to the Supreme Court. Four years later, he won unanimous Senate confirmation. 
 
 Along the way, he and his wife, Maureen, had nine children who in turn, at last count, produced 36 grandchildren. He frequently credited his wife for raising the family. 
 
 “I take care of the Constitution. She takes care of everything else,” he said. “That’s the deal.” 
 
 More coverage 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1XquibB ||||| Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has died at the age of 79, leaving the nation's highest court split between Republican and Democratic appointees, and sparking a partisan battle over whether President Barack Obama should nominate a replacement in a presidential election year. 
 
 "On behalf of the Court and retired Justices, I am saddened to report that our colleague Justice Antonin Scalia has passed away," Chief Justice John Roberts said in a statement late Saturday afternoon. "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. We extend our deepest condolences to his wife Maureen and his family." 
 
 Story Continued Below 
 
 The statement did not indicate the cause of death, but several news outlets reported that he died of natural causes while a guest at a resort in Marfa, Texas. Local media reported that Scalia attended a reception Friday night but did not appear for breakfast. He was later found dead in his room. 
 
 Scalia, widely regarded as the intellectual leader of the court's conservative wing, was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to the Supreme Court in 1986. He went on to have one of the most noteworthy careers of any justice, speaking out forcefully from the bench and in speeches around the country for his belief that the Constitution must be interpreted based on the original intent of the framers. 
 
 His death set off tremors throughout the political world. 
 
 Obama, in an evening appearance, praised Scalia as one of the nation's most consequential jurists and said he shared the grief felt by Scalia's wife, Maureen, and their nine children and many grandchildren. He said that now is the time to mourn, but that he intended to fulfill his constitutional duty to nominate a replacement. 
 
 But Obama is expected to face fierce — if not insurmountable — resistance in the Senate to any nominee that he might put forth, especially given the heightened political conversation around the presidential election. 
 
 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has power to prevent confirmation of any nominee, made clear within hours of the first reports of Scalia's death that Obama should not try to make a nomination before he leaves office next January. 
 
 “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 Reid, meanwhile, immediately called for confirming a replacement. 
 
 The U.S. flag is lowered to half staff outside the Supreme Court on Feb. 13, following the announcement of the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. | Getty 
 
 “Failing to fill this vacancy would be a shameful abdication of one of the Senate's most essential Constitutional responsibilities,” Reid said in a statement. 
 
 Conn Carroll, the communications director for Senate Judiciary Committee member Mike Lee (R-Utah), handicapped Obama's chances if he chooses to try to put a nominee forward. 
 
 “What is less than zero? The chances of Obama successfully appointing a Supreme Court Justice to replace Scalia?” Carroll said in a tweet. 
 
 He also predicted that the already jammed confirmation process for judges is now doomed. “If anything this will put a full stop to all Obama judicial nominees going forward,” he said in another tweet. 
 
 Regardless of what Obama does, Scalia's death seems certain to raise the profile of the judiciary and the Supreme Court in the ongoing presidential race. 
 
 Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas reacted quickly on Saturday evening, calling Scalia an “American hero” and stating that Obama should not be the one who gets to name a new justice. “We owe it to him, & the Nation, for the Senate to ensure that the next President names his replacement," he said in a tweet. 
 
 President Ronald Reagan appointed Antonin Scalia to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1986. | AP Photo 
 
 Other presidential candidates also weighed in, including Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, who called Scalia’s death “a massive setback for the Conservative movement.” 
 
 Hillary Clinton, the Democratic national poll leader, declared: "My thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Justice Scalia as they mourn his sudden passing. I did not hold Justice Scalia’s views, but he was a dedicated public servant who brought energy and passion to the bench." 
 
 Clinton added: "The Republicans in the Senate and on the campaign trail who are calling for Justice Scalia’s seat to remain vacant dishonor our Constitution. The Senate has a constitutional responsibility here that it cannot abdicate for partisan political reasons." 
 
 Scalia's death leaves the court split, 4-4, between Democratic and Republican-appointed justices. That could result in a deadlock on contentious cases before the court, including disputes over Obama's executive actions on immigration, state laws restricting access to abortion and whether public-sector workers can be required to pay representation fees to unions. 
 
 In situations where the court is evenly split, the lower court ruling being appealed is upheld but no precedent is set for future cases. The court could put or keep stays in place in some cases until a new justice allows it to reach a majority opinion. 
 
 Scalia generally joined with the court's other conservatives on polarized rulings in recent years, issuing caustic dissents as the court found a right to gay marriage and upheld key parts of Obamacare. 
 
 However, his jurisprudence also demonstrated a libertarian streak. He voted to uphold the right to burn the American flag and dissented from a ruling allowing states to collect DNA from those arrested for serious crimes. 
 
 Scalia often tangled sharply with lawyers arguing at the court and seemed to get a rise out of comments that spurned any notion of political correctness. In December, he made blunt comments about race during arguments on an affirmative action case, asserting that many African-American students might be better off attending "lesser schools where they do not feel that they're being pushed ahead in classes that are too fast for them.” 
 
 Scalia also seemed to show little concern about offending his colleagues. In a dissent in the gay marriage case last June, Scalia accused his fellow justices of a "judicial Putsch." He called Justice Anthony Kennedy's majority opinion "often profoundly incoherent" and ridiculed it for containing fortune cookie-style aphorisms. 
 
 Authors: ||||| Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, 79, has died during a hunting vacation in Texas. 
 
 Scalia was the leading conservative voice on the court, and his death will set off a mammoth fight over who should replace him in the heat of a presidential election cycle. 
 
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 There is likely to be significant pressure on the Senate, which is in Republican hands, to hold off on confirming anyone nominated by President Obama, who is in his last year in office. 
 
 A spokesman for Sen. Mike Lee Michael (Mike) Shumway LeeSenate confirms Trump’s pick to lead NASA Key senators warn Trump of North Korea effort on Syria Rep. Jordan: Action in Syria ‘should be debated in Congress’ MORE (R-Utah), a conservative who sits on the Judiciary panel, immediately sent a message on Twitter stating that no nominee from Obama should be considered. 
 
 What is less than zero? The chances of Obama successfully appointing a Supreme Court Justice to replace Scalia? — Conn Carroll (@conncarroll) February 13, 2016 
 
 Several 2016 GOP White House hopefuls and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellRepublicans divided over legislation protecting Mueller The Hill's Morning Report: Inside the Comey memos Democrats mull audacious play to block Pompeo MORE (R-Ky.) said the next president, not Obama, should select Scalia's replacement. 
 
 Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid Harry Mason ReidDems walk tightrope on Pompeo nomination The Memo: Teens rankle the right with gun activism Dems to party: Go on offense with Trump’s alleged affairs MORE (D-Nev.), called on the GOP-controlled Senate to consider an Obama nominee. 
 
 Said Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Patrick Leahy Patrick Joseph LeahyCongress should build on the momentum from spending bill Overnight Tech: Zuckerberg grilled by lawmakers over data scandal | What we learned from marathon hearing | Facebook hit with class action lawsuit | Twitter endorses political ad disclosure bill | Uber buys bike share Overnight Cybersecurity: Zuckerberg faces grilling in marathon hearing | What we learned from Facebook chief | Dems press Ryan to help get Russia hacking records | Top Trump security adviser resigning MORE (D-Vt.), "The American people deserve to have a fully functioning Supreme Court." 
 
 "The Supreme Court of the United States is too important to our democracy for it to be understaffed for partisan reasons," he said. "It is only February. The president and the Senate should get to work without delay to nominate, consider and confirm the next justice to serve on the Supreme Court.” 
 
 Replacing Scalia with a liberal justice could change the balance of the court under Chief Justice John Roberts, and would mean the election of the president could immediately determine the direction of the Supreme Court. 
 
 According to The National Review, it has been 80 years since a Supreme Court justice was confirmed in an election year to a vacancy that arose that year. 
 
 The Supreme Court is also likely to be a huge issue in November's race for the Senate majority. Individual senators running for reelection can be expected to see the court's makeup become a top issue in their campaigns. 
 
 Democrats need to gain five seats, or four seats if they retain the White House, to win back a Senate majority. 
 
 Republicans are defending several seats in states favorable to Democratic presidential candidates, including Wisconsin, Illinois and Pennsylvania. They are also defending seats in Florida, New Hampshire and Ohio, which were won in 2008 and 2012 by Obama. 
 
 A fight over the Senate filibuster is likely if the decision on Scalia's successor is punted to 2017. Sixty votes would be necessary to break a filibuster and confirm a Supreme Court justice. 
 
 Democrats used the "nuclear option" to change the Senate rules for most nominations so that only a majority vote was needed. But that did not apply to Supreme Court nominees. 
 
 Scalia's death comes on the day of the latest GOP presidential debate, the last time the candidates are set to meet before their Feb. 20 South Carolina primary. GOP candidates were quick to put out statements lauding Scalia, who has been a leading figure in the conservative movement for decades. 
 
 Two local news outlets first reported the news of Scalia's death, which the San Antonio News and KVIA said was from natural causes. 
 
 Roberts in a statement on behalf of all of the current and retired justices confirmed the news. 
 
 "I am saddened to report that our colleague Antonin Scalia has passed away," he wrote. "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. We extend our deepest condolences to his wife Maureen and his family." 
 
 Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) released a statement calling the conservative justice an "unwavering defender" of the Constitution. 
 
 "He was the solid rock who turned away so many attempts to depart from and distort the Constitution," Abbott wrote. "His fierce loyalty to the Constitution set an unmatched example, not just for judges and lawyers, but for all Americans." 
 
 Scalia, born in Trenton, N.J., and raised in Queens, N.Y., was nominated by Ronald Reagan in 1986 after serving on the D.C. Circuit Court. 
 
 He was a proponent of "originalism," the legal philosophy that held that the meaning of the Constitution should be interpreted as it was first written and not subject to contemporary views. 
 
 Scalia was also known for the colorful opinions he issued. In a dissent in King v. Burwell, the landmark healthcare case that upheld the Affordable Care Act, he referred to the majority's reasoning as "pure applesauce" and "jiggery-pokery."
– Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was found dead Saturday at a resort outside of Marfa, Texas, KVIA reports. According to the San Antonio Express- News, the 79-year-old appears to have died from natural causes. Scalia was the longest-serving justice currently on the Supreme Court, having been nominated by Ronald Reagan in 1986. In a statement, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called Scalia “a man of God, a patriot, and an unwavering defender of the written Constitution and the Rule of Law." “We mourn his passing, and we pray that his successor on the Supreme Court will take his place as a champion for the written Constitution and the Rule of Law," CBS DFW quotes Abbott's statement as saying. Scalia spent Friday hunting quail at the Cibolo Creek Ranch and told friends before going to bed that he wasn't feeling well, reports CNN. His body was found in his room after he didn't show up for breakfast Saturday. In a statement, Chief Justice John Roberts called Scalia an "extraordinary individual" who was "admired and treasured by his colleagues." The Chicago Tribune notes that the conservative judge's "sharply worded dissents and caustic attacks on liberal notions were quoted widely, and they had an influence on a generation of young conservatives," the paper states. Scalia's death gives President Obama the chance to get his third nominee onto the Supreme Court, CBS News reports, though that might be tough in an election year.