While questions continue to surround a potential replacement for Antonin Scalia, it appears the late Supreme Court Justice had already picked his successor.
Scalia was found dead Saturday in his room at a remote Texas hunting resort. The 79-year-old jurist was appointed to the court in 1986 by President Ronald Reagan.
His sudden death complicated an already tumultuous election year. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says a replacement should not be named until the next president takes office. Obama pledged to pick a replacement "in due time" and challenged Republicans to hold a vote on his nominee.
In a 2012 interview with C-SPAN, however, Scalia discussed who he would choose as his successor, and it would be his former colleague from the University of Chicago, Judge Frank Easterbrook.
Easterbrook, of the U.S. Seventh Circuit in the Midwest, collaborated with Scalia in the writing of his 2012 book "Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts."
"If there is one other name, one other judicial name associated with the two principal theories of this book, textualism and originalism, it is Frank Easterbrook," Scalia said during the interview. "It is. If I had to pick somebody to replace me on the supreme court it would be Frank."
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."
U.S. & World
Names have already been mentioned as possible successors to Scalia, including Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Ninth Circuit Judge Paul Watford.
