Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has survived several brushes with death — at least two in the last year alone — and she refuses to let a little thing like coronavirus stop her from her daily workouts.
The “Notorious RBG” is reportedly keeping up her exercise routine, working out daily with her trainer, even though most public gyms across the country have been shuttered over concerns about the spread of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19.
“Everybody’s been shut down. The only reason why I didn’t shut the justice down is because, hey, she ain’t having it,” her trainer told Law360 in a report published Tuesday. “She has that grandfather status to me and if she wants to train, that’s the least that I can do.”
“She doesn’t make excuses not to do it, so we find ways to do it,” he added.
Fortunately for Ginsburg, she has access to the private Supreme Court gym, which is there for the Justices’ use only, and she doesn’t have to rely on equipment used by hundreds of other people. Law360 does not specifically say that Ginsburg is the only Justice working out on the equipment currently, but the Supreme Court, like other courts across the country, is shut down to most business, and the Justices are now working remotely.
“The High Court closed to the public weeks ago, and indefinitely postponed two weeks of March oral arguments — for the first time since the 1918 Spanish Flu outbreak,” according to the New York Post. “For cases that have already been heard, the justices can continue to deliberate and release opinions remotely.”
To protect the four-time cancer survivor, Ginsburg’s trainer says that he wipes down all of the equipment she uses with sanitizing wipes before and after her workout and that he maintains strict “social distancing” from the Justice during her workouts, just in case either party has an illness. Ginsburg isn’t specifically listed as vulnerable to the disease, but she is certainly within the demographic most deeply affected by coronavirus.
“All I have to do is set it up and she just automatically knows exactly what I want to do,” he told the legal news website. “It doesn’t require me to grab her, hold her, get up close and personal.”
“I don’t know anybody who doesn’t feel better after a workout is completed and that includes the justice,” he added. “No matter what, we try to get it in twice a week,”
The Notorious RBG’s workout plan concerned left-leaning social media users, who suggested that perhaps the aging Justice, who missed weeks of the Supreme Court’s term this year after doctors discovered several spots of cancer on the Justice’s lungs while treating injuries she sustained in a fall, could work out at home, where the chance of becoming infected with the deadly virus is somewhat lessened.
“We are counting on Ruth Bader Ginsburg to be healthy. The Supreme Court is already scarily conservative, especially with democracy, ACA, & reproductive rights at stake. She should be doing virtual workouts & social distancing to the max. While we’re at it, can we bubble wrap her?” one prominent, feminist critic said.