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Ginsburg Misses Oral Arguments for First Time as Supreme Court Justice

Ginsburg Misses Oral Arguments for First Time as Supreme Court Justice

She’s still recovering from surgery.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg missed oral arguments this morning for the first time during her tenure.

Ginsburg, 85, underwent surgery last month to remove cancerous nodules on her left lung.

Chief Justice John Roberts announced Ginsburg “will participate in the cases based on the transcripts of the oral arguments.” The justices will hear 11 cases in the next two weeks.

No one knows when she will return to work.

From The Wall Street Journal:

The justice has survived several health scares since joining the court, including a bout with colon cancer in 1999 and early-stage pancreatic cancer, which doctors caught in 2009.

Medical experts have said it would likely take a few weeks for her to recover from her latest procedure.

In Monday’s first case, the justices are considering whether to allow personal injury lawsuits alleging that Merck & Co. didn’t adequately warn that its osteoporosis drug Fosamax could cause abnormal thigh-bone fractures.

In the day’s second case, the court is weighing whether a federal law governing debt-collection practices applies to certain foreclosure proceedings.

Doctors discovered the cancerous nodules on Ginsburg’s lungs in November after she fell in her office, which led to broken ribs. She underwent surgery to remove the tumors in December and left the hospital five days later.

The Supreme Court spokeswoman “said that after the surgery no further treatment was planned, and that there was no evidence of remaining disease.”

Ginsburg is the oldest member of the Supreme Court, but she hired clerks through 2020. I guess that means she’s plans on sticking around. The ultra-liberal justice has made it known that she doesn’t want President Donald Trump replacing her. The left has shown support for her as well. Some have even jokingly offered her their limbs and organs.

I say jokingly, but who knows. I wouldn’t be shocked if some of them actually do that!

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Comments

Sounds like this living fossil is truly “mailing it” in. Way past time to retire!

Proof of life.

Time to bring in Walter Bishop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iV_pH3lao0

TDS appears to be keeping her going. At least this time no one will notice her sleeping through oral arguments.

Humphrey's Executor | January 7, 2019 at 11:44 am

Get well soon.

    The Moe Szyslak approach best fits these situations, “I’m a friend in that I don’t wish [named person] any specific harm.”

    Wishing the acceleration of anyone’s death is, IMO, greatly inappropriate. Death will come to each of us regardless. Fat Boy Kennedy was my federal senator for all of his >45 years in the Senate. That he, or anyone else, occupies a public office for such an outrageous length of time is just plain super-outrageous. That aside, I never wished for his death. What I did wish for, in the same approach to Ginsburg, is their absence from public office. Leave, go off and do other things.

    Have the decency to leave the office, open the opportunities for others to give other and new ideas and approaches to government. That people remain so long in office is nothing less than selfishness writ large.

      pfg in reply to fscarn. | January 7, 2019 at 12:51 pm

      No matter how I struggle and strive
      I’ll never get out of this world alive

      From the wisdom of the Great Hank Williams,

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Sqw1-JneMI

      amwick in reply to fscarn. | January 7, 2019 at 3:37 pm

      That people remain so long in office is nothing less than selfishness writ large.

      It is possible in her mind she is sacrificing her golden years to prevent a conservative justice from replacing her.

      That would be the opposite of selfishness. In her mind. Only there.

        pfg in reply to amwick. | January 7, 2019 at 6:36 pm

        As you say, in her mind only.

        Like so many problems in life what she faces is a basic rate problem. Can she live longer than Trump can be president?

        snopercod in reply to amwick. | January 7, 2019 at 7:09 pm

        Maybe she’s coming to the realization that she has been wrong about mostly everything?

          tom_swift in reply to snopercod. | January 7, 2019 at 9:59 pm

          Well, she was wrong about Hillary being elected. Now she has to pretend to stay alive until another D’rat president can nominate a good statist as her replacement. She should have bailed halfway through Bama’s second term.

UnCivilServant | January 7, 2019 at 11:45 am

When someone with such severe medical issues as Ginsberg or McCain prior to his passing clings to a political office until death instead of seeking out and cherishing what little time they have left with loved ones, it speaks ill of their character. Whatever they once might have been, something has badly skewed their priorities.

Being an angry, bitter old prune is no way to go through life. I wish her a speedy recovery – from her TDS.

However, it appears to be terminal, so I proscribe a bit of dignity and grace for RGB to follow Anthony Kennedy out the door.

For the health of the nation.

Its only a matter of time…muuuuuuuuuuuhahahahhahaahaaaaaa!!!

Voice_of_Reason | January 7, 2019 at 12:09 pm

will anyone be able to tell the difference?

Voice_of_Reason | January 7, 2019 at 12:10 pm

democrats just keep repositioning the notorious RGB like “weekend at bernie’s”

“Just days after undergoing a pulmonary lobectomy, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is up and working.

Ginsburg, 85, continued working on Sunday while still at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, according to Kathy Arberg, a spokeswoman for the court.”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/supreme-court-justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg-back-at-work-days-after-surgery

    Yes, and she ran a practice marathon.

    Sounds like a public announcement from North Korea.

    jeffweimer in reply to wotan92. | January 7, 2019 at 1:13 pm

    Considering that earlier statement, today’s news means one of two things: she was in worse shape then than we were told or she’s in no better or worse shape *now*.

    RobM in reply to wotan92. | January 7, 2019 at 3:46 pm

    Haha, yeah, I was just mentioning that press release earlier today to a friend. Pravda-esque of the old USSR days! NO , no, she’s not serious! It’s kinda like a mere cold. Why, what would be a major and very serious surgery for most anyone to recoup from, RBG is back at her office and working and feeling fine. No worries!

buckeyeminuteman | January 7, 2019 at 12:12 pm

Do the honorable thing and resign while you still have some semblance of mind and body. No need to die in office to make a political point when you could be at home with family enjoying your final days. Heaven knows if it were a conservative-leaning Justice or Trump, the rabid Left would be screaming for them to resign.

Ginsburg already knows how she’ll decide all the cases before the court, so she doesn’t need to hear the arguments.

    userpen in reply to stablesort. | January 7, 2019 at 12:43 pm

    My guess is she has turned her vote in already to Justice Roberts. It’s called early voting. However, it is possible she may be incoherent, in which case Justice Roberts has authorized her Clerks to vote in her name utilizing the newly implemented Voter ID law for incapacitated Justices.

The “Weekend at Bernies Judge”. If needed there will be a feeding tube, LVAD, membrane lung oxygenator, dialysis. As long as Trump is President Ginsburg won’t “die”. Her EEG could be devoid of any activity and she would still be “voting” and considered legally alive.

Wonder how long this has been going on. She sleeps through argument and has for years.

VenturaCapitalist | January 7, 2019 at 12:34 pm

I heard they’re installing an oxygen tent over her seat on the bench for when she comes back.

Next will be a visit to a taxidermist and they’ll wheel he into her place on the bench.

Back in September long before her fall and cancer surgery that took half of one of her lungs RGB gave a speech at GW Univ. She was slumped in the corner of a lounge chair, couldn’t lift her head and it looked like she couldn’t move her left arm. She was slow responding too but did seem to still have her whits.

Watch a portion of it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AriOjUfbBrw

I hate to come across as insensitive, but she doesn’t look like somebody strong enough to come back from major surgery that invasive. I think we will find out a lot more about her condition soon. Don’t expect her to be at the SOTU either.

A question for the editor(s): ‘Reactions’ say there are no reactions to this post (yet).

I’m guessing that means external reactions, and not local comments.

I’ve linked to this post on my blog. Does that not count for an external reaction, or is there no way to account for that since ping/track backs are so last decade?

Just curious.

The ultra-liberal justice has made it known that she doesn’t want President Donald Trump replacing her.

Good thing our judges aren’t motivated by politics.

Right now, more than ever in her lifetime, 5 foot tall 84lbs soaking wet Ruth Bader-Ginsburg is of the utmost extreme importance to America’s very real cabal of enemies within until America’s POTUS is their hand-picked man and/or woman, not that she is of their exact same stripe per se, but her SCOTUS seat, and she herself, belongs to them to be sure. Her successor shall be theirs come heII or high water.

So, rest assured, for the time being Ruth Bader-Ginsberg has the functional longevity odds incredibly in her favor because she has the absolute very best geriatricians and osteopathic doctors, internists, and surgeons alive, the very best nurses alive, the very best dieticians alive, the very best personal trainers alive, the very best physical therapists alive….. and the very best housekeepers/lifekeepers alive to keep all germs, viruses, detritus, and other environmental pollutants at bay and her environment constantly just shy of sterile wherever she trod and lies down her aged frail little head. Bar none.

And, naturally, we’re paying for every last bit of it, too. Don’t you wish you were that lavished upon and critically important to such a powerful and monstrously vast swath of this nation. Albeit, that particular swath is utterly sinister, proudly degenerate, and voluntarily incredibly evìl….. so there’s that. ¯|_(ツ)_/¯

    healthguyfsu in reply to FlatFoot. | January 7, 2019 at 1:49 pm

    I wouldn’t be surprised if someone convinces her to go into a medically-induced coma to stay in a persistent vegetative state long enough to outlast Trump.

If you must excuse,
You must recuse.

“No one knows when she will return to work.”

I think it is more accurate to say “No one knows IF she will return to work.

Regardless of how the media downplays her condition and gives the most rosy outlook possible, there are some facts that just can’t be ignored.

First, the claim that it’s no big deal because there is no further evidence of disease. Well first of all you usually do get all the lesions when you remove 1/5th of the total lung capacity.

I had someone argue with me that it wasn’t a big deal because they weren’t even doing Chemo. Let’s be honest here the real reason they aren’t doing preventative chemo is because at her age and as frail as she appears it would probably kill her outright, not because it wouldn’t be indicated.

Also, regardless of the media spin this is a MAJOR surgery. Sure they let her go home in 5 days, well she probably has a private hospital suite at home with 24 hour nursing care. I doubt you and I would be released that quickly after such a major procedure.

I wish her all the best and hope she has a speedy recovery, however after almost a quarter century of nursing I can say that she appears to have a lot more in the negative category than in the positive. Also, the chances of her making a complete recovery are pretty much zero.

American Human | January 7, 2019 at 2:26 pm

What does she really do anyway?
– Sleep through arguments
– Vote the liberal/Democrat line and go home
– Have her clerks do All of the work
– Receive adulation and awards

My mother had this same procedure and it was very traumatic for her. She said it felt like she was drowning every minute of her life after part of her lung was removed due to cancer. She was in her early 70’s when this happened. Ginsberg will have a terrible time if she tries to come back. If her country came first she would resign now but we know she won’t. She is an ardent leftist radical who does not support the Constitution as written. She is an advocate of the “Living” Constitution BS!

DieJustAsHappy | January 7, 2019 at 2:30 pm

She could have my brain. I’m about done with it and it has been lightly used, although it does pull to the right.

Once again, I wish her a speedy recovery and a long, happy retirement – commencing immediately.

She fell, broke her ribs and then they find cancer in two different areas but she needs no more treatment. Does this story sound like a fairy tale?

She fell, broke her ribs and then they find cancer in two different areas but she needs no more treatment. Does this story sound like a fairy tale?

    herm2416 in reply to Jackie. | January 7, 2019 at 5:33 pm

    It sounds like she is past treatment.

    Gremlin1974 in reply to Jackie. | January 7, 2019 at 6:30 pm

    As I said above, at her age and with how frail she already seems to be it is much more likely they are not doing preventative Chemo because it is doubtful she could tolerate it and a good possibility that it would just kill her outright.

      murkyv in reply to Gremlin1974. | January 7, 2019 at 8:06 pm

      I spent Saturday with my ladyfriend and her family as her father was in his final hours from a cancer in his lower spine they just found in late Oct.

      While they were desperate to alleviate the pain, I watched as the radiation treatment took several weeks off of the few months he had left.

      It just took what strength he had out of him.

      I’ve had my fill of death the past few months, with my father, my best friends mother and now my bet gals father

      I hate getting old

I wish Justice Ginsburg all the best. Although I disagree with many of her legal opinions, I believe (as Justice Scalia did) that she served with honesty and integrity to the best of her ability.

The fact that she is not getting chemotherapy suggests that she has entered Hospice-style palliative care. I suspect she knows that the end is near, but she has made it clear that she does not want Donald Trump to choose her replacement. She likely feels it is her duty to occupy the seat on the Supreme Court as long as possible, regardless of her health, until she draws her last breath.

I don’t wish her ill. I wish her a long life, just not on the Supreme Cou

“She likely feels it is her duty to occupy the seat on the Supreme Court as long as possible, regardless of her health, until she draws her last breath.”

I don’t know if you are a Christian, but He commanded us to be perfect. Naturally, no one can live up to that. But God sends rain down upon the good as well as the wicked, and shines the sun down upon the evil and the good. And it is God who will repay. Now I draw upon Karma. Which is a beootch.

Really, though if she was thinking about her duty to the liberal cause shouldn’t she have quit during the Obama years?

It’s looking like she’ll die why Trump is in office.

Eastwood Ravine | January 8, 2019 at 12:40 am

She’s going to read and base her decision on the transcripts… assuming she’s still cognizant, let alone alive. It’s probably safe to say her clerks are going to be doing her job, and trying to run out the clock as long as they can.

The White House should be monitoring her residence for vehicles that may be hearses disguised as other vehicles. Heck, ambulances and SUVs would probably fit the bill. Hearses would be way to obvious.

ScottTheEngineer | January 8, 2019 at 2:40 am

I get the feeling that she died last week.
How would we know?

The Donald should stop by to wish her well. He actually doesn’t have to, but it would get secret service inside place for a look around.