According to a Reuters report the Obama administration has begun the process of selecting a nominee for the Supreme Court.

The White House on Monday said President Barack Obama had started preliminary discussions with his team about naming a Supreme Court justice nominee and accused Republicans of “bluster” for saying they would not confirm his pick. White House spokesman Eric Schultz told reporters that Obama would seek a nominee who understands that justice is not an abstract theory but something that affects Americans’ daily lives. Republicans say Obama should put off naming a replacement for conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, who died this weekend, and leave it to whoever is elected president in November.

Schultz said there was clear precedence for the U.S. Senate to confirm a Supreme Court justice during a presidential election year. (link)

One of the potential ‘short-list candidates’ is the current U.S. Attorney General, Loretta Lynch.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch might be the president’s choice to replace Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court. She’s the president’s top pick according to Tom Goldstein of the highly respected SCOTUSblog, which covers all things relating to the Supreme Court. Goldstein predicts Obama wants a black nominee for the court and writes, “The fact that Lynch was vetted so recently for attorney general also makes it practical for the president to nominate her in relatively short order.” (read more)

In what is sure to be a very contentious fight during an election year, this prior video of Senator Chuck Schumer is being used to showcase glaring hypocrisy:

Sen. Schumer intended to block Supreme Court appointments by President Bush 18 months before his last term ended. With the death of Justice Scalia, Schumer now calls any delay in confirmation of a nominee less than one year before the end of President Obama’s term “obstruction.”