Ginsburg Has Left Hospital, Doing Well at Home, Court Says (1)

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was released from a Baltimore hospital and is back at home, a day after being admitted with a possible infection, the U.S. Supreme Court said.

The hospital stay was the latest health scare for an 87-year-old justice who has become a liberal icon. Ginsburg underwent an endoscopic procedure to clean out a bile duct stent that was placed in August, when she was treated successfully for a malignant tumor on her pancreas.

“She is home and doing well,” Supreme Court spokeswoman Patricia McCabe said Wednesday in an email.

Ginsburg is the court’s oldest justice and a four-time cancer survivor. Her health has been of keen concern in recent years, in part because the Supreme Court could turn sharply to the right if she had to step down and President Donald Trump appointed her successor. Ginsburg was named to the court in 1993 by Democratic President Bill Clinton.

Ginsburg was examined at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington Monday night after experiencing fever and chills, the court said. She was admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore on Tuesday morning.

She has previously battled colon and breast cancer, as well as an earlier bout with pancreatic cancer. In May, she took part in the court’s telephone arguments while in the hospital to be treated for a benign gallbladder condition.

The court issued the final opinions of its nine-month term last week, though the justices are likely to stay busy in the coming months handling emergency matters. In a 5-4 order issued about 2 a.m. Tuesday morning, the justices cleared the federal death penalty to resume.

(Updates with earlier health issues)

To contact the reporter on this story:
Greg Stohr in Washington at gstohr@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net

Elizabeth Wasserman, Joe Schneider

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