Ginsburg: Depsite Cancer, Will Stay on Court for Years

WASHINGTON -- One month after her surgery for pancreatic cancer, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said Thursday she expects to be on the Supreme Court for several more years. In an interview, she also vividly recalled why, on her second day back on the bench, she attended President Obama's televised speech to a joint session of Congress.

"First, I wanted people to see that the Supreme Court isn't all male," the lone female justice said of the evening event Feb. 24. "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 was referring to a prediction by Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., three days before Obama's speech, in which he said she would likely be dead from the pancreatic cancer within nine months. Bunning later apologized for the comment.

Ginsburg, who will be 76 on March 15, underwent surgery Feb. 5. Doctors removed a small malignant lesion from her pancreas. All lymph nodes proved negative for cancer and no metastasis was found, according to a statement from the court. A decade ago, Ginsburg survived colorectal cancer.

She spoke Thursday in her chambers, a temporary, smaller office than usual because of the court's ongoing renovation. Ginsburg appeared in fine form, getting up often to retrieve books to show a visitor. She has resumed her usual schedule of conferences, dinners and travel.

Her illness spawned speculation by Bunning and other observers that she might retire soon. Even before Ginsburg revealed her pancreatic cancer, which is a particularly deadly form of cancer, news organizations and court analysts had been watching for signs of possible retirements. Five of the nine justices are over 70.

Ginsburg made clear Thursday she has not retreated from her oft-stated goal of matching the tenure of Justice Louis Brandeis, who served from 1916 to 1939. She joined the court at 60, at about the same age as Brandeis did. He served until age 82.

Ginsburg, a 1993 appointee of President Clinton, spent a week in the hospital after her surgery. She continued to read legal briefs and was in the courtroom the morning of Feb. 23 when justices returned from a winter recess. She has remained a forceful questioner at oral arguments.

She said President Obama sent her a handwritten note when her surgery was announced. "It was expressing his hope for a speedy and complete recovery," said Ginsburg, who met Obama soon after he was elected to the Senate in 2004.

Ginsburg, a former women's rights advocate who gained national prominence for her legal strategy in sex discrimination cases, has received countless bins of mail from people across the country, of all ideological persuasions:

"I had one that said, 'I don't agree with any of your opinions, but I hope you get well soon.' "