TEXAS — Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died in his sleep from a reported heart attack in the early morning of February 13 after a day of quail hunting at the Cibolo Creek Ranch in Shafter, Texas. His body was found by ranch owner John Poindexter.
“We discovered the judge in bed, a pillow over his head. His bed clothes were unwrinkled,” Poindexter reportedly said.
From MySA.com: “He was lying very restfully. It looked like he had not quite awakened from a nap,” he said.
Scalia,79, did not have a pulse and his body was cold, and after consulting with a doctor at a hospital in Alpine, Poindexter concluded resuscitation would have been futile, He then contacted federal authorities, at first encountering a series of answering services because he was calling on a weekend.
“Ultimately they became available and handled it t superbly. They flew in by helicopter. They told me to secure the ranch, which I did until this morning,” he said.
Officials have said the cause of death is a heart attack and an autopsy will not be performed.
His sudden death leaves eight justices remaining on the Supreme Court, split 4–4 between being fairly conservative and fairly liberal, during a heated presidential election year.
President Obama has stated that he will appoint Justice Scalia’s successor in “due time”. Scalia’s death marks only the second time in sixty years a justice has died before retiring from the Court.
