Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Being treated for cancer, Ginsburg says
Lesions found on liver, ‘fully able’ to continue on Supreme Court, justice states
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said Friday that she has had a recurrence of cancer but has been undergoing chemotherapy that has shown “positive results” and will remain on the court.
“I have often said I would remain a member of the court as long as I can do the job full steam,” she said in a statement issued by the Supreme Court. “I remain fully able to do that.”
Ginsburg, who is 87, said she began a course of chemotherapy May 19, after “a periodic scan in February followed by a biopsy revealed lesions on my liver.”
“Immunotherapy first essayed proved unsuccessful,” she said. “The chemotherapy course, however, is yielding positive results. Satisfied that my treatment course is now clear, I am providing this information.”
She said a scan this month showed that the liver lesions have been significantly reduced.
“I am tolerating chemotherapy well and am encouraged by the success of my current treatment,” she said.
Ginsburg has had colon cancer and pancreatic cancer. When cancer spreads to the liver from another organ, it is considered advanced. Usually, it cannot be cured, but treatment may shrink the tumors and help control the disease.
Ginsburg did not say where the tumors in her liver are thought to have originated, but she did say her chemotherapy was called gemcitabine. That drug is generally used for pancreatic cancer, which is more difficult to treat than colon cancer.
Ginsburg is the senior member of the court’s four-member liberal wing. Were she to leave the court, President Donald Trump would have the opportunity to nominate a third justice, joining Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.
Ginsburg has had surgery for lung cancer and radiation treatment for pancreatic cancer in recent years. She also had surgery for early-stage pancreatic cancer in 2009 and treatment for colon cancer in 1999.
More recently, in May, Ginsburg underwent a gallbladder procedure, and she participated in oral arguments from her room at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. On Tuesday, she was treated for a possible infection at the same hospital after experiencing chills and a fever, and she underwent an endoscopic procedure to clean out a bile duct stent that was placed in August.
She was released from the hospital Wednesday and was “home and doing well,” a Supreme Court spokeswoman said.
“My recent hospitalizations to remove gall stones and treat an infection were unrelated” to the recurrence of cancer, Ginsburg said in her statement.
“I will continue biweekly chemotherapy to keep my cancer at bay, and am able to maintain an active daily routine,” she said. “Throughout, I have kept up with opinion writing and all other court work.”
Dr. Wasif M. Saif, deputy physician-in-chief and medical director of the Northwell Health Cancer Institute in Lake Success, N.Y., said it was crucial for people receiving chemotherapy for advanced pancreatic cancer to also be treated for loss of appetite and digestive problems, to help keep up their strength and avoid weight loss.
“With supportive care, they do better,” he said.
If Ginsburg were to die or step down from the court there is little question that Senate Republicans would try to confirm a third Trump nominee even in the waning days of his first term.
“Oh, we’d fill it,” Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, said last year.
Senate Republicans took a different approach after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016, refusing to consider the nomination of Judge Merrick Garland in the last year of President Barack Obama’s second term.
McConnell and his allies say the two situations are different. When one party controls the Senate and the other the presidency, as in 2016, they say, vacancies should not be filled in a presidential election year. When the same party controls both the Senate and presidency, they argue, confirmations may proceed.
Democrats say this is hairsplitting hypocrisy that damages the legitimacy of the court. But their power to stop a third Trump appointment was diminished after changes in Senate rules on filibusters on nominations. All it takes now is a majority vote to confirm judicial nominees.