Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is back at the Supreme Court after months of a medical-related absence.
Ginsburg is likely to participate in the justices’ private conferences, the court’s press office said Friday. She will return to the bench on Tuesday for the first time since December surgery, in which two cancerous nodules were removed from her lung.
The cancer was discovered when Ginsburg took a fall and fractured three ribs in November and was admitted to George Washington Hospital.
Ginsburg’s absence has been a politically-sensitive issue. President Trump has successfully nominated two Supreme Court justices. Ginsburg has long been an anchor of the court’s liberal bloc and a Trump-appointed replacement would almost certainly push the nation’s highest bench to the Right.
Ginsburg, 85, the eldest Supreme Court justice, earlier this month made her first public appearance after the surgery, when she attended “Notorious RBG in Song” — a performance about her life and career — at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.
During recuperation Ginsburg missed six days of arguments and three closed-door conferences. The court said that she continued to work from home despite her absence at the court.
Ginsburg faces a heavy workload back the court. In private conference on Friday the Justices will consider new cases for its docket and finalizing opinions for cases argued in the fall.
[Also read: As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg recovers, the Left courts disaster]
