Ginsburg’s Cancer Puts U.S. Supreme Court’s Future in Spotlight
By Greg Stohr
Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s announcement that she has cancer thrusts the U.S. Supreme Court into the limelight, serving as a reminder that President Barack Obama may make multiple nominations during his four-year term.
Ginsburg, 75, had surgery for “apparently early stage” pancreatic cancer yesterday and will be hospitalized for seven to 10 days, according to a statement by the court. The court didn’t provide information on her prognosis.
Ginsburg survived colon cancer 10 years ago, and the early detection of her pancreatic cancer during a routine physical examination will improve her chances. Still, her latest illness raises questions about whether she will meet her avowed goal of serving for another decade. And even if she defeats cancer a second time, many observers say the nine-member court, which has six members over age 69, is poised for turnover.
“A Supreme Court vacancy in the near future is a virtual statistical certainty,” said Curt Levey, executive director of the Washington-based Committee for Justice, which advocates appointment of conservative judges.
The Supreme Court’s future has been overshadowed as a political issue in recent months by the economic crisis and Obama’s historic election and inauguration. Perhaps the biggest headlines came when Obama and Chief Justice John Roberts bungled the Jan. 20 inaugural oath, forcing a redo the following day.
The court’s profile is likely to rise over the next several months as its nine-month term winds down. Justices in the past have used the conclusion of the term, typically at the end of June, as an occasion to announce their retirements.
Souter and Stevens
Already, court-watchers are eyeing Justices David Souter, 69, who has made no secret that he longs to return to his native New Hampshire, and John Paul Stevens, who at 88 is the court’s oldest justice.
Ginsburg’s cancer adds a new element to the mix. In recent months she had sought to quell speculation that she might retire, telling a group of former law clerks and then a gathering at Columbia Law School in New York that she planned to stay on the court into her 80s.
A departure by Souter, Stevens or Ginsburg would let Obama solidify the court’s liberal wing by naming a younger replacement, though the court’s ideological balance wouldn’t shift. All three justices support abortion rights, gay rights, affirmative action and limits on the death penalty. Each dissented from the 5-4 decision that sealed the 2000 presidential election for George W. Bush.
Obama’s list of potential nominees would almost certainly start with Elena Kagan, 48, the Harvard Law School dean he nominated to serve as solicitor general, the federal government’s top Supreme Court lawyer. Obama also may consider naming the first Hispanic justice, possibly Judge Sonia Sotomayor, 54, of the federal appeals court in New York.
Second Woman
Ginsburg was appointed in 1993 by President Bill Clinton, becoming the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama “has not talked with the justice, but his thoughts and prayers are with her.”
Ginsburg had no symptoms before the “incidental discovery” of a lesion during her annual check-up at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, in late January, the Supreme Court statement said. A CAT scan revealed a tumor in the center of the pancreas, approximately 1 centimeter across.
A tumor that size is classified as either stage zero or stage 1A, according to the American Cancer Society’s Web site. About 37 percent of the people diagnosed with stage 1A pancreatic cancer survive at least five years.
Early Stage
“We take hope in reports that this was apparently an early stage of disease,” said the American Cancer Society’s chief medical officer, Otis W. Brawley. He added that Ginsburg will face “a challenging course of therapy.”
Pancreatic cancer is among the most deadly forms of the disease, with half of those stricken dying within 8 1/2 months. Treatments include radiation and chemotherapy. Ginsburg’s tumor was among the minority that are operable.
With surgery, “the hope is that the disease is cured,” National Cancer Institute oncologist Austin Duffy said.
Based on her practice in 1999, Ginsburg may release additional information about her condition and prognosis after doctors have more information.
Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said Ginsburg is already making plans to return to her duties. Ginsburg is scheduled to speak at events March 12 and 13 in Massachusetts and “plans to be there,” Arberg said. The justice’s hospital release date might even let her be on the bench when the court returns from its winter recess Feb. 23.
‘Remarkable Stamina’
Ginsburg, who Arberg said was at work at the court this week before her surgery, is known for her late-night hours. Former law clerks say they would receive phone calls from her as late as 3 a.m. while she worked from home.
“She has remarkable stamina, which we all saw when she weathered her prior illness,” said Yale Law School professor Judith Resnik, a decades-long friend of Ginsburg’s.
Supreme Court lawyer Tom Goldstein of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld called Ginsburg “an individual of surpassing toughness” and said he expected her to remain on the court if her health permits.
“This is not the kind of event that will change her resolve,” Goldstein wrote on his Scotusblog Web site.
The last member of the Supreme Court to publicly battle cancer was former Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who died in office in 2005 after contracting thyroid cancer.
To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Stohr in Washington at gstohr@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: February 6, 2009 00:01 EST |
