Looking strong and cheerful, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg returned to the bench this morning, just 18 days after major surgery related to her diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. Ginsburg, 75, took her place on the bench with a smile. As is the Court's custom, no note was made of her return or her illness. Almost immediately after arguments began, she started asking questions of the advocates before her.
During the first argument United States v. Navajo Nation, an important but dry and technical Indian mining law case, Ginsburg asked seven questions by our count -- roughly on par with her usual inquisitiveness -- and she leaned forward in her chair, fully engaged. She occasionally rocked her chair back and forth, as if impatient to proceed.
During her Feb. 5 operation at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, surgeons removed Ginsburg's spleen and part of her pancreas, and found one small malignant tumor as well as a benign tumor. A day later, she let it be known she planned to return to the bench today, after the Court's long winter recess. Some still predicted she would be too weak to resume work so quickly. But her appearance confirmed her determination to continue work without interruption. During her bout with colorectal cancer in 1999, Ginsburg did not miss a day of oral argument.
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