After over 25 years of perfect attendance, including the day after her husband’s death, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has missed her second day of Supreme Court arguments as she recovers from her lung cancer surgery.
According to The Hill, Chief Justice John Roberts announced Justice Ginsburg’s absence on Tuesday as his colleagues took their seats on the bench.
“Repeating what he said Monday, Roberts said Ginsburg is ‘unable to be present’ for the court’s sitting, but will participate in the decisions using transcripts of the arguments and court briefs,” The Hill reports. “Ginsburg, who was forced to miss her first oral argument in more than 25 years on Monday, is still recuperating at home after surgery to remove two cancerous nodules from the lower lobe of her left lung on Dec. 21.”
A little over a month after fracturing three ribs in a nasty fall, Ginsburg underwent surgery for lung cancer as 2018 came to a close. A statement released by the Supreme Court at the time announced that Justice Ginsburg underwent a “pulmonary lobectomy” in New York City that resulted in the removal of two malignant nodules. No other complications with Ginsburg have been detected.
“Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg underwent a pulmonary lobectomy today at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City,” read the statement. “Two nodules in the lower lobe of her left lung were discovered incidentally during tests performed at George Washington University Hospital to diagnose and treat rib fractures sustained in a fall on November 7. Both nodules removed during surgery were found to be malignant on initial pathology evaluation.”
Fortunately, the Supreme Court also announced that doctors found “no evidence of any remaining disease.”
Fearing that Justice Ginsburg’s days on the Supreme Court may be numbered in the era of President Trump, reactions from her supporters have ranged from deranged cultishness to sheer panic. Over at Politico, columnist Roger Simon said that he would actually sacrifice precious days of his own life to prolong Ginsburg’s.
Simon said on Twitter: “If it were possible, would you subtract one day off your life and add it to Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s life for one extra day of good health? If just 10,000 people did this, it would add 27 productive years to her life.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, fashion retailer Banana Republic has now reissued the “Ginsburg dissent collar” from 2012 and plans to send all proceeds to the ACLU in her honor.
“RBG is not just a judicial icon, she’s also a fashion one,” reports THR. “Banana Republic on Monday revealed that the company will reissue Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Dissent Collar Necklace for a limited time.”
“The dissent collar has become synonymous with Ginsburg’s way of showing the public how she feels about a decision on the bench,” the report continues. “She even wore her collar the day after Donald Trump’s presidential election win to showcase her disapproval of the results.”
Should Justice Ginsburg step down from the Supreme Court, President Trump could dramatically alter the court’s makeup for generations. Given that her legacy would be ultimately overturned, Ginsburg has made no plans to retire, a decision that progressives hoped she would make during Obama’s early years. Unless her health becomes a barrier, she plans to stay on the court at least through 2020.
“I said I will do this job as long as I can do it full steam,” Ginsburg said in December during an interview following a New York City screening of “On the Basis of Sex.”