It's been an eventful week in the Supreme Court, with Justice Clarence Thomas breaking his 10-year silence by asking a question and a major abortion case before the court.

And still, the ninth chair where Justice Antonin Scalia once sat was shrouded in a black cloth.

Dahlia Lithwick, Slate legal correspondent and host of the Amicus podcast, and NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg talk about this week's arguments and decisions and the impact the absence of Justice Scalia is having on his colleagues and new cases.

"There’s nobody on this court who has ever served without Justice Scalia. Think about it." @NinaTotenberg, prompting us to think about it

— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) March 3, 2016

"This is purely a symbolic fight," said Lithwick of the impending nomination process for a new justice. "Maybe [Obama] just needs to pick a real monster political player [like Loretta Lynch or Elizabeth Warren] in order to make this a campaign issue until November."

Totenberg pointed out the other side of the same argument: "If this is going to be a campaign issue, you should pick someone who's widely respected and not sort of a wackadoo on the left." She said this person would be someone who's liberal, in the mold of Justice Ginsberg. After all, if the next president is a Democrat, they might renominate them.