US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been released from the hospital after undergoing surgery for early stage lung cancer, according to CNN. There is no sign of any cancer left in her body.
She underwent surgery last week to remove one of the five lobes of her lung, a Supreme Court spokesperson announced. Physicians found the cancer by accident after the 85-year-old liberal justice fell and fractured three ribs in early November. She was attended at the at Memorial Sloan Kettering hospital in New York.
"Justice Ginsburg was discharged from the hospital yesterday and is recuperating at home," a spokesperson for the Supreme Court said in a statement Wednesday.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
Ginsburg is a survivor of colon and pancreatic cancer. Doctors said she's likely to have a full recovery, unless she faces complications. Never one to be stopped from working, RBG hopes to be back in the bench when the court starts its new term next month.
"According to the thoracic surgeon Valerie Rusch, both nodules removed during surgery were found to be malignant on initial pathology evaluation. Post-surgery, there was no evidence of any remaining disease," the Supreme Court statement read. "Scans performed before surgery indicated no evidence of disease elsewhere in the body. Currently, no further treatment is planned. Justice Ginsburg is resting comfortably and is expected to remain in the hospital for a few days."
Ginsburg's health has been a source of worry for liberals concerned with the balance of the Supreme Court and what her retirement could mean. At 85, Ginsburg is the oldest justice on the bench. If she retires, President Donald Trump would have the opportunity to appoint a third conservative justice to the bench. His two appointments, Associate Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, cemented the balance of the court to the right. Trump had said in the past he hoped he could appoint four Supreme Court justices by the end of his first term.
Over the summer, Ginsburg said she plans to stay in the bench as long as she can. "I'm now 85," she said. "My senior colleague, Justice John Paul Stevens, he stepped down when he was 90, so think I have about at least five more years."
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT