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Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, the intellectual cornerstone of the court's modern conservative wing, whose elegant and acidic opinions inspired a movement of legal thinkers and ignited liberal critics, died Feb. 13 on a ranch near San Antonio. He was 79. His death set off an immediate partisan battle over a vacancy that could reshape the Supreme Court for years to come, as President Barack Obama vowed to nominate a successor and Senate Republicans called on him to let the next president fill the seat.