Mourners pay respects to late Justice Scalia

After a private ceremony for family, friends and justices, Scalia’s casket was to be on public view from 10:30 a.m. until 8 p.m. Dozens of mourners had already lined up outside the court to pay their respects. A total of 98 former Scalia law clerks will take turns standing vigil during the day.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said she and Scalia “were best buddies” for more than 30 years.

Friday’s ceremonies began in below-freezing weather when eight Supreme Court police officers carried Scalia’s casket up the steps of the marble courthouse and into the Great Hall.

Sitting Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, speaking at Yale University Wednesday, did not comment on Scalia’s replacement, but did open the event with a call for a moment of silence.

Outside the court, meanwhile, a makeshift memorial was set up featuring jars of applesauce, a pile of fortune cookies and paper bags, items that figured in the outspoken conservative Scalia’s sharp dissents in recent cases.

The casket will be placed in the court’s Great Hall on the Lincoln Catafalque, the platform on which President Abraham Lincoln’s coffin rested in the Capitol rotunda in 1865.

In the afternoon, President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama visited the court to honor Scalia.

Other justices who have laid in repose in the Supreme Court include former Chief Justice William Rehnquist, former Justice Harry Blackmun, former Justice William J Brennan Jr., former Justice Thurgood Marshall and former Chief Justice Earl Warren. Vice President Joe Biden would represent the Obama administration at the funeral. A 2007 portrait of Scalia by artist Nelson Shanks will be displayed near the casket. A few wiped away tears after the casket arrived.

Scalia was found dead Saturday in his room at a remote Texas hunting resort.

Obama has phoned Senate leaders in the past day, including Republicans who have threatened to block any nominee made by the Democratic president to replace long-serving conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, who died on February 13.

Scalia left his mark on the judicial branch of the USA government over the course of his 33 years in the public eye.

She noted that it’s unusual to for a Supreme Court opening to exist in an election year, saying that the proximity to the presidential race “creates too much talk around the thing that isn’t necessary”.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other GOP leaders have said a replacement should not be named until the next president takes office.

“It’s definitely a big loss for our country he was definitely a very influential figures and I don’t necessarily agree with him on everything but I have a lot of respect for him as a justice”, said Emily Weatherspoon, 17.