Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 81, underwent a heart procedure Wednesday morning, the Supreme Court announced.
Justice Ginsburg “experienced discomfort during routine exercise” Tuesday night and was taken to the MedStar Washington Hospital Center, the court said in a statement. The justice underwent a coronary catheterization procedure to place a stent in her right coronary artery.
“She is resting comfortably and is expected too be discharged in the next 48 hours,” the statement said.
Kathleen Arberg, the court’s public information officer, added that “Justice Ginsburg expects to be on the bench on Monday.” The court is scheduled to hear two arguments that day, including one on how the First Amendment applies to threats conveyed on Facebook.
Listen up, Notorious RBG- you are officially not allowed to have any more health scares. Get well soon, also too.
LongHairedWeirdo
If she felt “discomfort” and they put in a stent, it’s a very good prognosis, *in general*. Even if I was a doctor (which I’m not) I wouldn’t comment on a person’s health without examining them, but a cath + stent usually means “wow, you’re lucky we caught this when we did.”
Poopyman
@LongHairedWeirdo: +1. Plus, MedStar advertises it’s coronary care facilities on the radio all the time. They probably maxed out their preventive procedures because a) they can, and b) it’s frickin’ RGB!
mai naem mobile
I really like this woman and i know a stent is generally not a big deal etc etc. It just makes her health appear more fragile and she is my favorite justice by far.
Betty Cracker
Stents are pretty damn routine these days — my elders have had about half a dozen between them and went on to recover completely. But yeah, no more health scares. RBG is a national treasure.
Cacti
That they were able to stent it before she had a massive infarction is a good thing.
But it highlights my frustration with RBG. She may consider herself irreplaceable, but she is most definitely not immortal. And now, the opportunity to fill a vacanacy with anyone remotely reasonable is past.
c u n d gulag
ZOINKS!
GET BETTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Meantime, Fat Tony is getting ready to enjoy his morning pre-Thanksgiving snack of sausage lasagna – with extra sausage and cheese – followed later at the formal meal by a turkey stuffed with cannoli’s, followed by dessert cannoli’s.
He’s watching replays of the Ferguson riots to build-up his appetite for tomorrow!
And Clarence Thomas is making his specialty for Fat Tony’s Thanksgiving for them to share:
Southern sausage gravy.
After watching the replays with Fat Tony, of course!
If only ‘the good die young,’ then we’re in for a lot more time with these 2 Fascist psychopaths and their 3 SCOTUS pals.
OY!
Poopyman
And please! No more Greco-Roman wrestling with Fat Tony!
Cacti
@c u n d gulag:
Scalia is also a cigarette smoker.
It’s his deal with devil that keeps him ticking.
Tommy
Get well. Be better soon.
With that said I guess at 81 this is good to read/hear:
JCT
Routine stuff folks. I don’t even blink an eye re: sending an 81-yr-old for cath .
Notice that they picked it up after one of her supervised exercise times- good for her, she’s doing everything right.
Tommy
@JCT: Yeah as others have said I am not a doctor, but my father had one put in about a decade ago, at a much younger age, and he has had no recurring problems and still lives an active if not very active lifestyle.
SP
It’s so awesome having a political system where policy outcomes affecting the lives of millions of people rely on the health of particular septua- and octo-generians.
SatanicPanic
@SP: yeah, I wonder if we’re not at a point where the SCOTUS needs to be downgraded to a cabinet position.
Omnes Omnibus
@SatanicPanic: Good luck amending Article III.
SatanicPanic
@Omnes Omnibus: Well, we can’t always get what we want
Mike E
@c u n d gulag: You know who’s having the best week ever?
Charles Manson.
mai naem mobile
@Mike E: yeah, who would have ever thought Charles Manson would have a better week than Bill Cosby? Ever?
Steve from Antioch
She’s a great Justice, but she really should have retired a year ago when Obama would have had a better chance to support a good replacement.
The worst case scenario is that she dies after Jeb Bush is inaugurated and Ted Cruz is her replacement.
Pogonip
I confess I don’t keep up much w/ Supreme Court doings. Why is Ginsburg a national treasure?
Also, I got to wondering if EEO laws could be amended so mostly black officers patrol mostly black jurisdictions and mostly white officers patrol white jurisdiction; would this help eliminate racial tensions after police shootings? (Given the general us-vs-them attitude of cops, I don’t foresee eliminating police shootings completely.)
wasabi gasp
Damn that Tony and his Soppressata pushing ways.
ETA: now I want to go to the deli.
muddy
My neighbor had one put in after a heart attack, worker’s comp said she had to go back to work at the supermarket deli 3 days later. Apparently it’s no big thing .
ETA: I wrote “sarcasm alert” at the end but stupidly put tags around it and it vanished.
askew
And we were called sexist for wanting her to step down last year. We’re fucked if she leaves the bench. The Senate GOP won’t approve anyone for Obama.
Pogonip
@muddy: I hope she’s OK now.
Mentioning food reminds me: Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Mike E
@Steve from Antioch: No, the worst case scenario is Helter Skelter. Seriously.
Tommy
@askew: More than a few people told me I was crazy for saying we should oppose any Bush Supreme Court nominee. Obama is now looking at a Republican Senate where maybe the two hardest people to get confirmed, Attorney General and Defense Secretary are basically open positions. Maybe a Supreme Court judge (not saying RBG). Anybody think the Senate Republicans will have any problems not letting anybody Obama nominates get confirmed?
We got Federal judges that have made it out of committee, supported by the Republican senators from their home state, that can’t get a vote on the floor. Heck Hagel ran into some problems with his confirmation and he is a lifelong Republican that served with said Senators for years and years.
Mike E
@wasabi gasp: Cost Plus World Market…hot soppressea salame, $4.
SatanicPanic
@Tommy: yeah, around 2020 we might be looking at a SCOTUS with only 6 or 7 supremes. That will be interesting, to say the least.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
She better keep breathing until the next Democrat gets elected President (hopefully in 2016) because if she’s replaced with another conservative justice we’re all royally screwed. I really wish Thomas and Scalia would both kick the bucket or retire.
Pogonip
I’d like to see a law to the effect that if Congress can’t get their sorry asses in gear and confirm a nominee within X months, he automatically gets the position. Unfortunately the only people who can pass such a law are…Congress!
Good old auto-correct tried to change that to “…ate Congress.”. I guess even computers are getting disgusted with them!
Tommy
@SatanicPanic: And I don’t want that. But we hear the phrase “mutual assured destruction.” One party is willing to go there, we are not IMHO. I might be totally stupid for saying this, but if they know we’ll in fact go there as they will, then things could get a “little” better. Now they think they can bully us (and they are). Pound us into submission. Until we show them this is not the case we are in a far weaker position.
danimal
Obama would get a Ginsburg replacement confirmed after an arduous and painful process.
There is no way in hell that Obama will ever replace Thomas, Scalia, Alito, Roberts or Kennedy. Obama could nominate Ted “I’m not all that conservative” Cruz himself and still not get him confirmed.
Han
If she has to retire, or god forbid dies, could Obama find the liberal Bork-equivalent to nominate? Not sure there is such a thing, but that would be fun.
Cheryl from Maryland
Washington Hospital Center is great. My husband comes from a family predisposed to heart problems (grandfather died at age 50 of a heart attack). He had stents put in at age 48 in 2004. Washington Hospital Center has kept him going for 10 years, including a CABG and v-fib.
grandpa john
should not be a problem, I had the same procedure done last December and mine was after a slight Heart attack and visit to EM room, took place at 11;00 PM, whole procedure including the balloon angioplasty part took less than an hour. Two days later I was home. Hell most hospitals that are heart centers run them through like an assembly line, one an hour. and they have staff on call and ready on a 24 hr basis
The main reason they keep you for a day is to make sure the plug where they insert the balloon and stint doesn’t come out causing a major blood loss problem, ever try sleeping on your back with a big bag of sand laying on your groin ?
Kathleen
I do not wish her ill, but we should recognize that this arrogant and totally selfish old woman has almost certainly guaranteed a Republican supermajority on the Court. Favorite Justice my Aunt Fanny.
Tractarian
“Better to have Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the court in the last few months before she dies, rather than some random Obama-nominated replacement for 30-plus years.”
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Goblue72
Can we say I told you so if she croaks and we are stuck with a GOP Senate, versus her returning earlier this year while Dems controlled the Senate?
liberal
@Kathleen: I’m not sure whether that will happen, but you’re right, she’s egotistical and selfish.
Splitting Image
@Kathleen:
If Americans can’t be bothered to turn out in 2016 in enough numbers to elect a President and enough Senators to nominate and confirm a competent replacement, then they deserve a Republican supermajority on the court. The arrogant and totally selfish voters who had better things to do earlier this month are a lot more to blame than Ginsburg for the current situation.
Hunter
Chill. The headlines for the most part have been scary and alarmist, but that’s the press for you. This procedure is, as has been pointed out, pretty routine. Out of the hospital in 48 hours? She’s in fine shape — that’s perfectly normal for this type of procedure. I had stents put in my femoral arteries earlier this year, along with an arterial bypass, and was up walking around the next day, at my doctor’s insistence. Granted, I’m not 81, but I’m not that far away from it.
That said, may she live long and continue giving them hell.