Ruth Bader Ginsburg says she is being treated for recurrence of cancer
The supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has had a recurrence of cancer.
“I have often said I would remain a member of the court as long as I can do the job full steam,” the 87-year-old said in a statement. “I remain fully able to do that.”
The court’s oldest member said she began chemotherapy on 19 May, 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.”
Recent hospitalizations, Ginsburg said, were not related to this issue.
Earlier this week, Ginsburg was released from hospital after treatment for a possible infection. In May, she was hospitalized for treatment for a gall bladder problem. Last year, she underwent radiation therapy to treat pancreatic cancer, months before breaking three ribs in a fall at her office.
She has also had surgery for earlystage pancreatic cancer, in 2009, and was treated for colon cancer in 1999.
In January, Ginsburg said she was “cancer free”.
Her current treatment, she said, was “yielding positive results”.
“I will continue bi-weekly chemotherapy to keep my cancer at bay, and am able to maintain an active daily routine. Throughout, I have kept up with opinion writing and all other court work.”
Ginsburg is not the only member of the supreme court to suffer health challenges this year. Chief justice John Roberts was hospitalized overnight in June after a fall in which he injured his forehead. According to the Washington Post, the accident happened at the Chevy Chase Club, in suburban Maryland.
Ginsburg is one of four liberals on the nine-member court. Justices serve for life or until they decide to retire. Since taking office, Trump has nominated two conservatives, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, tilting the court to the right.
The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, controversially kept a seat open in the last year of Barack Obama’s presidency, after the death of the conservative Antonin Scalia, arguing it had happened too close to the election.
But he has said he will fill any seat vacated before the next presidential contest, in November.
A vacancy would dramatically reshape the presidential race. In 2016, Trump won support from wary Republican voters by promising to appoint conservatives.
The supreme court ended its ninemonth term this month, after hearing oral arguments by telephone for the first time, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
It handed down consequential rulings on presidential power, abortion, immigration and the rights of LGBTQ+ workers. Many of them angered Trump, who wondered on Twitter: “Do you get the impression that the supreme court doesn’t like me?”
Gorsuch in particular has disappointed conservatives, who had hoped he and Kavanaugh would help narrow abortion access and limit transgender rights.
Recent rulings on such issues could cause conservatives to push even more forcefully for Trump’s re-election. But they could also energize liberals, still angry over the confirmation of Kavanaugh, who denied accusations of sexual assault, and newly fearful a conservative court will overturn Roe v Wade, the 1973 decision that established the right to abortion.
Since Trump’s election, Democrats have paid close attention to the health of Ginsburg, the longest-serving justice. Moments after her statement was released on Friday, social media lit up with supporters offering well wishes and prayers.