Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has died at the age of 79, leaving the nation's highest court split between Republican and Democratic appointees, and sparking a partisan battle over whether President Barack Obama should nominate a replacement in a presidential election year.

"On behalf of the Court and retired Justices, I am saddened to report that our colleague Justice Antonin Scalia has passed away," Chief Justice John Roberts said in a statement late Saturday afternoon. "He was an extraordinary individual and jurist, admired and treasured by his colleagues. His passing is a great loss to the Court and the country he so loyally served. We extend our deepest condolences to his wife Maureen and his family."


The statement did not indicate the cause of death, but several news outlets reported that he died of natural causes while a guest at a resort in Marfa, Texas. Local media reported that Scalia attended a reception Friday night but did not appear for breakfast. He was later found dead in his room.

Scalia, widely regarded as the intellectual leader of the court's conservative wing, was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to the Supreme Court in 1986. He went on to have one of the most noteworthy careers of any justice, speaking out forcefully from the bench and in speeches around the country for his belief that the Constitution must be interpreted based on the original intent of the framers.

His death set off tremors throughout the political world.

Obama, in an evening appearance, praised Scalia as one of the nation's most consequential jurists and said he shared the grief felt by Scalia's wife, Maureen, and their nine children and many grandchildren. He said that now is the time to mourn, but that he intended to fulfill his constitutional duty to nominate a replacement.

But Obama is expected to face fierce — if not insurmountable — resistance in the Senate to any nominee that he might put forth, especially given the heightened political conversation around the presidential election.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has power to prevent confirmation of any nominee, made clear within hours of the first reports of Scalia's death that Obama should not try to make a nomination before he leaves office next January.

“The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new President," McConnell said.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, meanwhile, immediately called for confirming a replacement.

The U.S. flag is lowered to half staff outside the Supreme Court on Feb. 13, following the announcement of the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. | Getty

“Failing to fill this vacancy would be a shameful abdication of one of the Senate's most essential Constitutional responsibilities,” Reid said in a statement.

Conn Carroll, the communications director for Senate Judiciary Committee member Mike Lee (R-Utah), handicapped Obama's chances if he chooses to try to put a nominee forward.

“What is less than zero? The chances of Obama successfully appointing a Supreme Court Justice to replace Scalia?” Carroll said in a tweet.

He also predicted that the already jammed confirmation process for judges is now doomed. “If anything this will put a full stop to all Obama judicial nominees going forward,” he said in another tweet.

Regardless of what Obama does, Scalia's death seems certain to raise the profile of the judiciary and the Supreme Court in the ongoing presidential race.

Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas reacted quickly on Saturday evening, calling Scalia an “American hero” and stating that Obama should not be the one who gets to name a new justice. “We owe it to him, & the Nation, for the Senate to ensure that the next President names his replacement," he said in a tweet.

President Ronald Reagan appointed Antonin Scalia to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1986. | AP Photo

Other presidential candidates also weighed in, including Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, who called Scalia’s death “a massive setback for the Conservative movement.”

Hillary Clinton, the Democratic national poll leader, declared: "My thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Justice Scalia as they mourn his sudden passing. I did not hold Justice Scalia’s views, but he was a dedicated public servant who brought energy and passion to the bench."

Clinton added: "The Republicans in the Senate and on the campaign trail who are calling for Justice Scalia’s seat to remain vacant dishonor our Constitution. The Senate has a constitutional responsibility here that it cannot abdicate for partisan political reasons."

Scalia's death leaves the court split, 4-4, between Democratic and Republican-appointed justices. That could result in a deadlock on contentious cases before the court, including disputes over Obama's executive actions on immigration, state laws restricting access to abortion and whether public-sector workers can be required to pay representation fees to unions.

In situations where the court is evenly split, the lower court ruling being appealed is upheld but no precedent is set for future cases. The court could put or keep stays in place in some cases until a new justice allows it to reach a majority opinion.

Scalia generally joined with the court's other conservatives on polarized rulings in recent years, issuing caustic dissents as the court found a right to gay marriage and upheld key parts of Obamacare.

However, his jurisprudence also demonstrated a libertarian streak. He voted to uphold the right to burn the American flag and dissented from a ruling allowing states to collect DNA from those arrested for serious crimes.

Scalia often tangled sharply with lawyers arguing at the court and seemed to get a rise out of comments that spurned any notion of political correctness. In December, he made blunt comments about race during arguments on an affirmative action case, asserting that many African-American students might be better off attending "lesser schools where they do not feel that they're being pushed ahead in classes that are too fast for them.”

Scalia also seemed to show little concern about offending his colleagues. In a dissent in the gay marriage case last June, Scalia accused his fellow justices of a "judicial Putsch." He called Justice Anthony Kennedy's majority opinion "often profoundly incoherent" and ridiculed it for containing fortune cookie-style aphorisms.