The second-guessing started when the cause of Antonin Scalia's death was established over the phone by a local justice of the peace and no autopsy was ordered.
Justice Antonin Scalia will lie in repose at the Supreme Court's Great Hall on Friday. Chief Justice William Rehnquist was the last to receive the honor in 2005.
A brewing political fight over who will replace the Supreme Court justice — and even whether to replace at all this year — could scramble the dynamics in Senate campaigns across the country.
The president says he intends to fill Antonin Scalia's vacancy, but it's unlikely the Senate will make it easy. Cases on immigration, religious liberty and abortion access may hang in the balance.
He was one of six Catholics on the court and the most outspoken about his faith. But he said "the only article in faith that plays any part in my judging is the commandment, 'Thou Shalt Not Lie.'"
Admirers and detractors paid their respects at the foot of the Supreme Court steps in Washington. They left flowers and candles and one left a copy of the U.S. Constitution.
President Obama struck a somber tone, remembering the late-Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia as a "towering legal mind" who influenced a generation, but made it clear, he intends to replace him.