"I wish the president well as he makes choices and goes down that line" says former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O ’ ' Connor. | AP Photo O'Connor on SCOTUS: Obama should 'get on with it'

Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor says President Barack Obama should get to nominate a replacement for the late Justice Antonin Scalia, rebuking Republicans who have in recent days shown reticence toward voting — or even holding hearings — to approve a successor in an election year.

“Well, you just have to pick the best person you can under the circumstances as the appointing authority must do, and one that we care about as a nation and as a people,” the 85-year-old O'Connor said in an interview with Fox’s local Phoenix affiliate. “And I wish the president well as he makes choices and goes down that line. It’s hard.”


The fact that the vacancy created by Scalia’s death occurred in an election year “creates too much talk around the thing that isn’t necessary,” she said. O’Connor stepped down from the bench in 2006 to care for her ailing husband, who died in 2009.

O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the court and a nominee of President Ronald Reagan, rejected the notion that the next president should be able to pick the next justice after the election.

“I don’t agree. I think we need somebody there now to do the job, and let’s get on with it,” she said.