Sandra Day O'Connor says Obama should 'get on with it' and name Scalia's replacement

(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

last updated 18 February 2016

Add Sandra Day O'Connor to the list of people who say President Obama should name the late Antonin Scalia's replacement on the Supreme Court.

Ronald Reagan nominated O'Connor to the court in 1981, and she was the main swing vote until her retirement in 2006. She told KSAZ she does not agree with her fellow Republicans who say the next president should name Scalia's successor and they will block Obama's nominee. "We need somebody in there to do the job and just get on with it," she said.

The fact that there is an opening during an election year "creates too much talk around the thing that isn't necessary," O'Connor said, adding that Obama should "pick the best person" possible under the circumstances "as the appointing authority must do. And it's an important position and one we care about as a nation, as a people. I wish the president well as he makes choices and goes down that line — it's hard."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.