Ginsburg Fights Back, Disputes Dire Prediction About Her Health
Perhaps just a bit irked by a U.S. senator’s dire prediction that she has only nine months to live, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been fighting back against rumors of her impending retirement—or worse.
A month after surgery for pancreatic cancer, she says in an in-chambers interview with USA Today that she expects to serve for at least several more years on the nation’s top court bench, according to the newspaper.
Ginsburg, who celebrates her 76th birthday next week, says she made a point of attending President Obama’s televised speech to a joint session of Congress on Feb. 24, two days after she returned to work following her Feb. 5 surgery, to disprove rumors that she would soon retire.
“First, I wanted people to see that the Supreme Court isn’t all male,” says Ginsburg, the only female justice on the court. “I also wanted them to see I was alive and well, contrary to that senator who said I’d be dead within nine months.”
Ginsburg also made clear that she still hopes to fulfill her long-stated goal of matching the service of famed former Justice Louis Brandeis, who was on the Supreme Court from 1916 to 1939, USA Today notes.
Ginsburg was 60, when she joined the court, about the same age as Brandeis when he started work as a justice. He served until he was 82.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Ginsburg Is Back on the Bench, Despite Senator’s Gloomy Prediction”
