Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg won’t be on the bench Monday morning to hear oral arguments in the first case for the court since she underwent surgery for cancer last month.
It’ll be the first time the 85-year-old has missed a day of arguments since she was appointed to the high court in 1993. Instead, she’ll work from home, according to SCOTUSblog co-founder Amy Howe, and “can still participate in today’s cases based on the transcripts and briefs.”
On Dec. 21, Ginsburg underwent a pulmonary lobectomy for two malignant growths in her lung. The surgery was a success, and a statement from the Supreme Court revealed that doctors found “no evidence of any remaining disease” at the time.
It is perhaps no surprise that she’s working so soon following such an invasive procedure. In November, she went back to work the same week that she fractured three ribs in a fall.
She’s had several medical emergencies in the past decade and is a pancreatic cancer survivor. In 2012, she fractured two ribs in a fall and kept the incident private for several months. In 2014, she underwent a procedure to have a stent placed in her right coronary artery.
Her medical history is of constant public concern, in part because her retirement would likely lead to President Donald Trump picking her successor and widening the conservative majority on the court.