What Does Trump Victory, US Senate Staying In Republican Hands Mean For Supreme Court?

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- With Tuesday's Trump victory and the US Senate also staying in Republican hands, what is the future of the Supreme Court?

A Temple University law scholar says not much may change right away.

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Temple law professor Mark Rahdert, who specializes in constitutional law and the Supreme Court, says the immediate task at hand is filling the vacancy left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

Rahdert says the Senate will not act on President Obama's nominee and will now wait for Trump to take office next year and nominate a new justice...

"It's virtually certain that the individual who is nominated will possess positions and views that are very similar or comparable to those of Justice Scalia or perhaps even more conservative than Justice Scalia's views would have been."

But Rahdert says it's very likely liberal senior justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer will try to hold on through Trump's first term.

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He says even senior Justice Anthony Kennedy, who's more of a centrist, may try to stay as well.

But, Rahdert says a second Trump term could eventually mean movement on the court's ideological make-up if any of the senior justices leave and the Senate remains under Republican control.