Names and faces
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg fractured three ribs in a fall in her office at the court and is in the hospital, the court said Thursday. The court’s oldest justice, 85, fell Wednesday evening, the court said. She called Supreme
Court police early Thursday to take her to George Washington University Hospital in Washington after experiencing discomfort overnight, court spokesman
Kathy Arberg said. Ginsburg was admitted to the hospital for treatment and observation after tests showed she fractured three ribs. In her absence, the court went ahead Thursday with a courtroom ceremony welcoming Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who joined the court last month. The extent of Ginsburg’s injury was not made clear. Ginsburg has had a series of health problems. She broke two ribs in a fall in 2012. She has had two bouts with cancer and had a stent implanted to open a blocked artery in 2014. She also was hospitalized after a bad reaction to medicine in 2009. But she has never missed Supreme Court arguments. The court won’t hear arguments again until Nov. 26. Appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1993, Ginsburg rebuffed suggestions from some liberals that she should step down in the first two years of President Barack Obama’s second term, when Democrats also controlled the Senate and would have been likely to confirm her successor. She already has hired clerks for the term that extends into 2020, indicating she has no plans to retire.
Joni Mitchell didn’t speak or sing a word at an all-star concert in honor of her 75th birthday. She didn’t have to. Showing up was enough. The Canadian folk singer-turned-California singer-songwriter ended a 3½-year absence from public life that began when she had an aneurysm in 2015. When she slowly walked into the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles on Wednesday and took her seat, she got a standing ovation and spontaneous audience chorus of “Happy Birthday.” Artists including James Taylor, Chaka Khan, Kris Kristofferson and Emmylou Harris serenaded Mitchell with her own songs at the concert. The songs were interspersed with photos of Mitchell and audio clips of her speaking throughout her career, allowing her to serve as the evening’s narrator even as she remained silent. The only song performed not written by Mitchell was written for her. Graham Nash sang “Our House,” his 1970 song about life with Mitchell when the two were dating in their 20s. Mitchell needed help walking in and getting to her seat in a front corner. “You know, Joni has had a long and arduous recovery from a really major event,” Taylor, one of Mitchell’s oldest friends, said before the show. “But she’s doing so much better.”