Supreme court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was hospitalized again on Friday night, Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathleen Arberg said Saturday. The 86-year-old Ginsburg was checked into Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore after she experienced “chills and fever” earlier Friday. She was previously evaluated at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, D.C. before she was taken to Johns Hopkins for treatment of any possible infection, Arberg added. She is expected to be released from the hospital as early as Sunday morning.
Arberg said Ginsburg’s symptoms “abated” after she was treated with intravenous antibiotics and fluids.
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Ginsburg has suffered through several health scares and was treated for colon cancer in 1999 and early-stage pancreatic cancer in 2009. In August, she had a three-week radiation treatment for a tumor on her pancreas. It was treated “definitely,” and the Supreme Court said there were no signs the cancer spread.
In December 2018, she had surgery for lung cancer, notes CBS News.
“Post-surgery evaluation indicates no evidence of remaining disease, and no further treatment is required,” a Supreme Court spokesperson said at the time.
Ginsburg rarely misses oral arguments, but missed one on Nov. 13 for a stomach bug.
Ginsburg has been on the court since 1993 after being nominated by President Bill Clinton, and is only the second woman to serve on the court. She has famously refused to retire and plans to serve as long as possible. She is the most senior member of the court’s liberal wing, alongside Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Stomayor.
The Supreme Court is now divided, with four justices appointed by Democratic presidents and five appointed by Republican ones. President Donald Trump has already seen two appointees make it to the court in his first term, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, the same number of justices President Barack Obama nominated in his two terms.
The other justices serving on the court are Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, both appointed by President George W. Bush, and Justice Clarence Thomas, appointed by President Ronald Reagan.
In a recent interview with NPR, Ginsburg responded to concerns about her health, but assured she is “very much alive.”
“There was a senator, I think it was after my pancreatic cancer, who announced with great glee that I was going to be dead within six months,” Ginsburg said at the time. “That senator, whose name I have forgotten, is now himself dead, and I.”
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