WASHINGTON, DC — Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was admitted to the hospital Thursday for “observation and treatment” after falling in her office at the court building Wednesday night, the court’s public information office said.
She went home, but after experiencing pain went to George Washington Hospital for treatment, where doctors said she had fractured three ribs on her left side.
“She went home, but after experiencing discomfort overnight, went to George Washington University Hospital early this morning,” the statement from the court said. “Tests showed that she fractured three ribs on her left side and she was admitted for observation and treatment.”
At 85, Ginsburg is the oldest justice on the court and one of four liberal justices on the court. Her health has been a matter of some speculation in recent years. She has survived prior bouts with cancer and in 2014, had a stent implanted to open a blocked artery. She also fractured two ribs in a June 2012 fall, but did not publicly disclose her injuries until months later. In 2009, she was hospitalized after a bad reaction to medicine.
The justice, who studied at Harvard Law school, was appointed by President Clinton in 1993. Ginsburg has been a stalwart for equality, and was the principal author of the landmark 1971 Supreme Court brief that extended the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to women. She was the director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Women’s Rights Project before Clinton appointed her to the court.
Ginsburg rebuffed suggestions from some liberals that she should step down in the first two years of President Barack Obama’s second term, when Democrats also controlled the Senate and would have been likely to confirm her successor.
She already has hired clerks for the term that extends into 2020, indicating she has no plans to retire.
She has recently appeared on late-night television shows, including “The Late Show” with Stephen Colbert, where she showed him her workout routine. She works with a personal trainer at the Supreme Court’s exercise room.
The court said that more information would be provided as it became available.
The Associated Press contributed reporting.
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(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
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