News of Justice Antonin Scalia’s death is just beginning to reverberate across the political world this evening, as the 79-year-old’s passing at a West Texas resort on Saturday was confirmed a short time ago by the New York Times.

Doing away with any attempt to appear even remotely respectful and seizing upon the obvious political earthquake that is the passing of the Supreme Court’s most conservative justice in the final year of President Obama’s presidency, Ted Cruz got nakedly political in his reaction to Scalia’s death, tweeting that Americans “owe it” to Scalia and ourselves to block Obama from nominating a successor: