Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg discharged from the hospital after latest medical procedure
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was discharged from a New York City hospital on Friday after her latest medical procedure, the court said.
“She is home and doing well,” a statement from the court’s public information office read.
Ginsburg had been hospitalized earlier this week for a nonsurgical procedure to replace a bile duct stent that was originally placed last year, the court said. It was her second trip to the hospital in July, and comes two weeks after the 87-year-old justice announced her cancer had returned.
Earlier this month, Ginsburg was treated for a possible infection at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore after having a fever and chills, undergoing an “endoscopic procedure to clean out a bile duct stent that was placed last August,” the court said at the time.
Ginsburg also announced on July 17 — after the Supreme Court had completed a blockbuster term — that a scan in February had revealed lesions on her liver.
According to her statement, the pancreatic cancer Ginsburg was treated for in 2009 has returned again, this time in her liver, and she tried one of the new immunotherapies for cancer, but it failed to shrink the tumors. The biweekly chemotherapy she is undergoing is yielding “positive results,” she said at the time.
Due to her age and long medical history, Ginsburg’s health has drawn widespread interest given her status as a liberal icon. The prospect that President Donald Trump could name a third justice to the Supreme Court would also be a major election issue.
Ginsburg has had several bouts with cancer. She had radiation therapy for the pancreatic cancer in 2019 and had some tumors taken out of a lung in 2018. She had colon cancer in 1999.
But Ginsburg has proven adept at doing her job without interruption despite her health issues. When the justices heard oral arguments by telephone in May due to the coronavirus pandemic, Ginsburg participated from her hospital room while recovering from a benign gallbladder condition.
This story has been updated with additional background information.
