WASHINGTON — Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg returned to the Supreme Court bench Monday with a wide smile and a long list of questions for the lawyers appearing before her, resuming her duties less than three weeks after surgery for pancreatic cancer.
Ginsburg, whose 76th birthday is next month, smiled broadly as she walked into the courtroom with her eight male colleagues and turned slightly to look directly at reporters who chronicled her Feb. 5 surgery and diagnosis of early- stage cancer.
She was a vigorous participant in Monday’s two oral arguments and even teased veteran Supreme Court practitioner Carter Phillips about whether an opinion she wrote in 2003 had misstated the justices’ intentions.
“Do you think that was just carelessness on the court’s part?” Ginsburg asked.
“Oh, I would — I would never assume that, Justice Ginsburg,” Phillips replied.
Ginsburg’s return coincided with the end of the court’s midterm break. The justices announced they have granted six new cases, probably to be heard in the term that starts in October, including a dispute between Congress and courts about a cross that has stood for more than 70 years on a prominent peak in the Mojave National Preserve in California.
Ginsburg underwent surgery at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York after a January CT scan revealed a 1-centimeter lesion in her pancreas. That tumor turned out to be benign, but surgeons removed another, smaller tumor and her spleen.
The small tumor was diagnosed as Stage 1 cancer, and doctors said it had not spread to lymph nodes or other parts of her body.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly, in part because it is difficult to detect in its early stages and spreads quickly.
Ginsburg, who has been more open than many justices in discussing her health, started working from home last week and participated in the justices’ private conference Friday.
She had said she would not miss any of the court’s oral arguments. The same was true during her bout with colon cancer a decade ago.
