Justice Antonin Scalia was found dead Saturday in West Texas, thrusting the balance of the narrowly divided U.S. Supreme Court into the election year debate.

Scalia, 79, appears to have died in his sleep of natural causes at the Cibola Creek Ranch resort on Friday night, according to media reports. He attended a private party with 40 people before going to bed and his body was found in the morning when he did not appear for breakfast.

Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1985, Scalia was the longest serving current justice on the Supreme Court. He was a fierce proponent of the “originalism” principle of constitutional interpretation – that the meaning of the U.S. Constitution’s text is fixed to when it was enacted and cannot be changed unless formally amended.

This interpretation most frequently aligning Scalia with the conservative wing of the court, alongside Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Samuel Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas.

Scalia most recently made headlines when he authored a scathing dissent in Obergefell v. Hodges last year, blasting the majority as “the furthest imaginable extension” of the court “doing whatever it wants” in legalizing gay marriage. He accused the majority of rewriting the Constitution rather than doing their job of interpreting it.

Scalia is best known for authoring the majority opinion in Bush v. Gore, which decided the winner of the 2000 presidential election. He wrote that Florida voters’ equal protection rights would be violated if a halted recount continued due to different recount standards in different counties.

Roberts said Scalia’s death is “a great loss” to the court.

“He was an extraordinary individual and jurist, admired and treasured by colleagues,” Roberts said in a statement. “His passing is a great loss to the court and the country he so loyally served. We extend out deepest condolences to his wife Maureen and his family.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he prays Scalia’s successor “will take his place as a champion for the written constitution and the rule of law,” calling Scalia a “man of God, patriot, and an unwavering defender” of the Constitution.

“He was the solid rock who turned away so many attempts to depart from and distort the Constitution,” Abbott said in a statement. “His fierce loyalty to the Constitution set an unmatched example, not just for judges and lawyers, but for all Americans.”

Republican lawmakers quickly rejected the notion of President Barack Obama nominating Scalia’s replacement before he leaves office. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the vacancy should not be filled until a new president is elected.

“The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice,” he said in a statement.

U.S. District Judge Fred Biery told the San Antonio Express-News that his “educated guess is nothing will happen before the next president is elected.”

Biography

Antonin Scalia was born in Trenton, N.J., March 11, 1936. He married Maureen McCarthy and had nine children: Ann Forrest, Eugene, John Francis, Catherine Elisabeth, Mary Clare, Paul David, Matthew, Christopher James, and Margaret Jane. He received his A.B. from Georgetown University and the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and his LL.B. from Harvard Law School, and was a Sheldon Fellow of Harvard University from 1960–1961.

Scalia was in private practice in Cleveland from 1961 to 1967, a Professor of Law at the University of Virginia from 1967 to 1971, a Professor of Law at the University of Chicago from 1977 to 1982, and a Visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown University and Stanford University. He was chairman of the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law in 1981–1982 and its Conference of Section Chairmen in 1982–1983.

He served the federal government as General Counsel of the Office of Telecommunications Policy from 1971 to 1972, Chairman of the Administrative Conference of the United States from 1972 to 1974, and Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel from 1974 to 1977.

Scalia was appointed Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1982. President Reagan nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and he took his seat September 26, 1986.