Justice Ginsburg Treated for Cancer

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court, underwent surgery for colon cancer Friday, and neither her doctor nor a court spokeswoman would speculate on her prognosis.

Ginsburg, 66, was taken ill this summer in Crete, where she was teaching law classes as part of a program sponsored by Tulane University, a court official said. Her condition was initially diagnosed as acute diverticulitis, an intestinal inflammation.

But further tests at the Washington Hospital Center revealed this week that she was suffering from cancer.

Dr. Lee Smith, the colorectal surgeon who performed the operation, said that Ginsburg would remain in the hospital for about a week. He would not say when she might return to work.

Colorectal cancer is the third most common form of the disease, and it usually is curable if caught before the tumor penetrates the wall of the colon.

About 134,000 Americans are diagnosed with the disease each year, according to the American Cancer Society, and about 56,000 people die of it annually.

Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said that Ginsburg had been in her chambers in recent weeks, preparing for the opening of the new term.

On Sept. 27, the justices will gather for the first time to go through the more than 1,800 appeals that have arrived from lower courts over the summer. They begin hearing oral arguments on the first Monday in October.

Ginsburg, President Clinton’s first appointee to the high court, made her reputation in the law as a leading courtroom advocate for women’s equality during the 1970s.

Though the Equal Rights Amendment failed to win approval in the required two-thirds of the states, Ginsburg succeeded in ridding the law of most sex bias through a series of victories in cases before the high court.

It seemed fitting that she spoke for the Supreme Court in 1996 when the justices declared unconstitutional the male-only admission policy at Virginia Military Institute. Her opinion made clear that the era of single-sex public colleges had come to an end.

But for the most part, Ginsburg has seen her role as a justice as being quite different from her role as an advocate. She has been a moderate liberal on the bench and has avoided broad pronouncements and glowing phrase-making. During oral arguments, she often dwells on technical procedural issues.

If she is unable to return to the bench in October, her absence could leave her colleagues deadlocked 4-4 on several key cases.

On Oct. 5, the justices will hear arguments in a campaign finance case testing whether the government can continue to limit cash contributions to candidates. On Oct. 13, the court will consider whether to strip state university professors and other state workers of the right to sue states for age discrimination. If the court is evenly divided on these cases, it will not issue rulings.

Cancer has already had a profound effect on Ginsburg’s life. Her mother died of cervical cancer when she was in high school.

A decade ago, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor survived a bout with breast cancer. A few weeks after undergoing surgery, O’Connor returned to the bench. She did not miss any sessions of the court, although she was undergoing of chemotherapy.