Megyn Kelly has condemned President Obama for not attending the funeral of Justice Scalia saying “I find no precedent for this in history, that a sitting U.S. president would not attend the death of a sitting Supreme Court justice.”
Well perhaps she could have done a little research to discover the precedent. It didn’t take that much effort to uncover the following facts.
In 1954 Justice Robert Jackson died and President Eisenhower did not attend the funeral
Here is a news article on the funeral.
In 1949 Justice Frank Murphy died and President Truman did not attend the funeral.
Here is a news article on the funeral.
Also in 1949 Justice Wiley Rutledge died and President Truman did not attend the funeral.
Here is an article showing the funeral was on September 14, 1949
Here is the official White House schedule for that date.
These are the only three Associate Justices to die in office during the last 70 years.
Two Chief Justices have died and both times the President attended.
As to President Obama not attending the service that is fine with me. Vice President Biden will attend and according to news report he and Justice Scalia were friends.
I do understand that those on one side of the political fence want to take any chance to go after those on the other side but if you are going to do so at least do your research and fact checking.