Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg participates in a discussion during the Library of Congress National Book Festival at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center on Saturday, August 31, 2019.
Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was hospitalized Tuesday for a possible infection, according to a spokeswoman for the court.
The justice, 87, received treatment at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore after experiencing fever and chills. She underwent a procedure to clean a bile duct stent and will stay in the hospital for a “few days,” court spokeswoman Kathleen Arberg said in a statement.
“The Justice is resting comfortably and will stay in the hospital for a few days to receive intravenous antibiotic treatment,” she said.
Ginsburg, the oldest Supreme Court justice, has endured a range of health issues in recent years. In January, she said she was “cancer-free” after undergoing treatment for what was likely pancreatic cancer last year.
The year before, she underwent treatment for cancerous growths on her lungs.
Ginsburg and the rest of the court just concluded a flurry of work, issuing rulings on President Donald Trump‘s financial records, LGBTQ rights, abortion rights and the president’s efforts to shut down the Obama-era program to shield Dreamers from deportation, among other topics, in a two-week period.
President Bill Clinton appointed Ginsburg, a liberal stalwart, to the top U.S. court in 1993. The court currently has a 5-4 conservative majority — though it stymied some of the Republican Trump’s priorities in its recent decisions, drawing the president’s ire.
