SUPREME COURT – AT 11:48 A.M. ET:  It is clear that President Obama is actively vetting possible Supreme Court candidates, and will try to fill the opening left by the death of Antonin Scalia. 

The president, who showed his smallness by refusing to attend Scalia's funeral, wants to put the Republicans in the Senate in the position of either approving his nominee, or looking like obstructionists, preferably "racist" obstructionists.  Thus far the position of the Senate leadership, which is Republican, is to refuse to consider any nominee until the next president is elected and sworn.  From The Hill:

President Obama is vetting two federal appeals judges and a federal trial judge who have received support or have ties to Republicans to replace Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, according to the New York Times.

Citing a source knowledgeable about the process, the Times reports that Merrick B. Garland and Sri Srinivasan are undergoing background checks by the FBI.

And according to the National Law Journal, federal trial judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is also being considered for the nomination.

Jackson formerly served on the U.S. Sentencing Commission and is an extended relative of Speaker Paul Ryan through marriage, according to the Times. She was confirmed to her current position in a voice vote in 2013.

Srinivasan, long floated as a potential choice for nomiee, was confirmed unanimously by the Senate to the federal Court of Appeals in the D.C. circuit in 2013. And Garland was confirmed in 1997 in a 76-23 vote.

Srinivasan would be the first Indian-American and first Hindu to serve on the Supreme Court, and Jackson would be the first black woman.

The New York Times previously reported that President Obama is also considering Judge Jane Kelly for the position.

COMMENT:  There are reports, unconfirmed, that the nomination will be made in the coming weeks.  If Trump is the likely Republican nominee, he'll be pressured by the media to take a stand on whether the Senate should hold hearings now, or wait for a new president.  He could, of course, deflect the pressure and say that he won't intervene in a Senate decision. 

March 5, 2016