WASHINGTON — Antonin Scalia's body lay in a Texas funeral home Sunday as officials awaited word about whether they would need to perform an autopsy before the late Supreme Court justice could return home to Virginia.
A procession of about 20 law enforcement officers arrived in the early hours Sunday at an El Paso funeral home, said Chris Lujan, a manager for Sunset Funeral Homes. He said they had traveled more than three hours from the West Texas resort ranch where the 79-year-old Scalia was found dead in his room Saturday morning.
If an autopsy is requested by Scalia's family or ordered by a justice of the peace, then an El Paso County medical examiner would likely perform it at the funeral home, Lujan said.
Tentative plans call for Scalia's body to be flown Tuesday back home to his family in a northern Virginia suburb.
President Barack Obama ordered flags to be flown at half-staff at the high court, where Scalia served for three decades, and other federal buildings throughout the country and U.S. embassies and military installations throughout the world.
Read Monday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.