Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was back in the hospital on Friday night. Ginsburg's latest visit was due to a fever and chills the justice had experienced earlier in the day. According to a statement from the Supreme Court, Ginsburg was initially evaluated at a hospital in D.C. before being transferred to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore for further evaluation and treatment. She is expected to be released on Sunday.
Last week, the 86-year-old missed oral arguments because she was "indisposed due to illness," according to Chief Justice John Roberts. Ginsburg is the oldest justice on the Supreme Court. Before undergoing surgery for lung cancer last December, Ginsburg had not missed oral arguments in 25 years. The four-time cancer survivor has also been treated for colon and pancreatic cancer.
After breaking her ribs again in 2013, Ginsburg faced mounting pressure from the left to step down and allow then-President Barack Obama to pick her liberal replacement. Ginsburg chose to stay on, which was all fine and well because Hillary Clinton was supposed to win the presidency in 2016. But we all saw how well the left handled Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation two years later.
The amount of attention that Ginsburg's health receives is evidence of the court's sharp ideological divide and the activist role the judiciary has taken on in recent decades. Despite all of Ginsburg's health problems, she stubbornly refuses to resign. Even before the 2016 presidential election, Ginsburg made her poor opinion of then-Republican nominee Donald Trump widely known.
In an unprecedented instance of a Supreme Court justice attacking a presidential nominee, Ginsburg told The New York Times in 2016, "I can't imagine what this place would be -- I can't imagine what the country would be -- with Donald Trump as our president." Ginsburg also called Trump "a faker" and joked about moving to New Zealand if Trump was elected president. After her attacks, Trump tweeted that Ginsburg's "mind is shot" and called upon Ginsburg to step down.
Justice Ginsburg of the U.S. Supreme Court has embarrassed all by making very dumb political statements about me. Her mind is shot - resign!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 13, 2016
Of course, Trump won the election and Ginsburg hasn't moved to New Zeland, although I hear they have excellent health care.