It's time for President Barack Obama to "get on with it" and pick a nominee for the Supreme Court vacancy left by the sudden death of Justice Antonin Scalia, retired jurist Sandra Day O'Connor says.
In an interview with a
Fox News affiliate in Phoenix, posted by
Politico on Thursday,
O'Connor — nominated by President Ronald Reagan and the first woman to serve on the high court — said, "I don't agree" with those who argue the next president should be the one to make the nomination.
"I think we need somebody there now to do the job, and let's get on with it," said the 85-year-old, who stepped down from the nation's high court in 2006 to care for her ailing husband, who died in 2009.
She conceded Obama faces a tough road ahead amid the rancor over the issue.
"Well, you just have to pick the best person you can under the circumstances as the appointing authority must do, and it's an important position, and one that we care about as a nation and as a people," she said.
"And I wish the president well as he makes choices and goes down that line. It's hard."
O'Connor added that vacancy created by Scalia's death occurred in an election year "creates too much talk around the thing that isn't necessary."
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