Justice Ginsburg confirms she’s ‘cancer free’

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who has faced recurring health concerns during her lengthy tenure on the high court, sounded a positive note Tuesday about the state of her health.

“I’m cancer free,” the 86 year-old justice told CNN in an interview. “That’s good.”

In August, a spokeswoman for the Supreme Court announced that Ginsburg had successfully completed three weeks of radiation treatment for a malignant tumor on her pancreas.

“The Justice tolerated treatment well,” the Supreme Court said in an Aug. 23 statement. “The tumor was treated definitively and there is no evidence of disease elsewhere in the body.”

Ginsburg’s remark appears to be her first public comments describing herself as cancer free following the procedure.

Since being appointed to the Supreme Court by former President Clinton in 1993, Ginsburg has survived a total of four bouts of cancer.

Last January, she missed her first oral argument in more than 25 years while recuperating from surgery to remove cancerous nodules from her lung.

This term, the justice missed a day of oral arguments in November because of a stomach bug but returned to work later that week.

Ginsburg, who is considered the leader of the court’s liberal wing, will participate in deciding the cases she missed by relying on written briefs and recordings of the oral arguments.

Updated at 4:42 p.m.