The U.S Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been admitted to hospital and treated for a possible infection.
The 87-year-old had been experiencing fever and chills before receiving treatment at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland on Tuesday morning, a statement from a Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathleen Arberg said.
Ginsburg underwent an endoscopic procedure to “clean out a bile duct stent” that had been placed last August. “The Justice is resting comfortably and will stay in the hospital for a few days to receive intravenous antibiotic treatment,” the statement said.
JUST IN: #SCOTUS Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg hospitalized. pic.twitter.com/6pZ5oShvyn
— Nicole Ninh (@nicninh) July 14, 2020
Ginsburg is the oldest Supreme Court Justice in the U.S and has dealt with a range of health issues in recent years, including lung and pancreatic cancer, as well as three broken ribs after suffering a fall in 2018. In January, she declared she was cancer free.
She has swiftly returned to her role in court after each health episode, managing to push through with little interruption.
Ginsburg was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton in 1993. She is now the most senior liberal justice and is the second female justice of only four to ever be appointed to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court currently has a 5-4 conservative majority, after Donald Trump appointed Neil Gorsuch in 2017 and Brett Kavanaugh in 2018.
Ginsburg’s health is closely watched as a vacancy in the Supreme Court would give Trump the opportunity to appoint a third justice, potentially tilting the court further to the right.