Originally Posted by Robbie

The court won't be non-functional. They will still hear cases. But if there is a tie in voting of 4-4, then the case law of the lower courts would be upheld.

Hopefully Pres. Obama will nominate someone that will be able to get through the nomination process.
But that takes a lot of reaching out and negotiating with Congress. Reagan was very good at that. Obama not so much.