title:  Bad News, GOP: Justice Sandra Day O’Connor Backs Obama In Supreme Court Fight
text: President Obama just received the highest profile supporter for his quest to fulfill his Constitutional duties by nominating a successor to recently deceased Justice Antonin Scalia s seat on the Supreme Court. Retired Justice Sandra Day O Connor, the first woman to serve in that capacity, told an interviewer that Obama is right   America needs a Justice. I don t agree (with Republicans),  O Connor said in an interview with Phoenix-based Fox affiliate KSAZ.  We need somebody in there to do the job and just get on with it. She noted that it s unusual to for a Supreme Court opening to exist in an election year, saying that the proximity to the presidential race  creates too much talk around the thing that isn t necessary. She said Obama should name a replacement for Scalia, an influential conservative member of the nation s high court who was found dead Saturday at age 79.O Connor also told the station that  you just have to pick the best person you can under these circumstances,  adding,  I wish the president well as he makes choices and goes down that line. The retired justice adds to the slowly growing chorus of voices on the right who have begun to peel off of the original assertion that Obama should not be able to appoint Scalia s replacement. Now some Republicans are closer to the Democratic position, arguing that as has been done in the past, a nomination in the president s final year should not be summarily rejected.O Connor was nominated in 1981 by Ronald Reagan, but while appointed by a conservative president over time she came to be seen as a  swing  justice, never exclusively on one side of an issue.For instance, while she voted in the majority in the Bush v Gore election case in 2000, she also voted with the majority in favor of abortion rights and campaign finance reform.O Connor stepped down from the court in 2005, and was replaced by George W. Bush s nominee, Samuel Alito, a hardcore conservative.Featured image via Twitter