Liberal justice breaks ribs in fall
Eighty-five-year-old Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg fractured three ribs in a fall in her office at the court and is in hospital, the court said yesterday.
The court’s oldest justice fell on Thursday evening, the court said. She called Supreme Court police to take her to George Washington University Hospital in Washington after experiencing discomfort overnight, court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said. She was admitted to the hospital for treatment and observation after tests showed she fractured three ribs.
In her absence, the court went ahead yesterday with a courtroom ceremony welcoming new Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who joined the court last month. President Donald Trump and new acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker were on hand.
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 was also hospitalised after a bad reaction to medicine in 2009.
But she has never missed Supreme Court arguments. The court won’t hear arguments again until November 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.
Ginsburg leads the court’s liberal wing. –AP