Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg underwent surgery on Friday, December 21, to remove two malignant growths from her left lung.
The court said in a statement that the 85-year-old’s pulmonary lobectomy was performed at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. “Post-surgery, there was no evidence of any remaining disease,” read the statement. “Currently, no further treatment is planned. Justice Ginsburg is resting comfortably and is expected to remain in the hospital for a few days.”
The growths were discovered during tests that Ginsburg had done after she fell in her Supreme Court office in early November and fractured three ribs on her left side. At the time, she was briefly hospitalized for treatment and observation at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C.
This is the justice’s third bout with cancer since being appointed to the court in 1993 by then-president Bill Clinton. She survived colon cancer in 1999 and pancreatic cancer 10 years later.
Ginsburg previously broke two ribs in 2012 after falling at her home. Later that year, she underwent a heart procedure. Through it all, she has never missed a Supreme Court argument and has been known to continue exercising on a regular basis.
The Brooklyn native, who is currently the oldest justice on the panel, has already hired law clerks for the term that extends in 2020, suggesting that she has no plans to retire.
