Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, left, rides out to his vacation home in Port Clyde, Maine, shortly after leaving the hospital Tuesday.
Posted on 08/01/2007 7:41:07 AM PDT by SmithL
WASHINGTON -- Chief Justice John Roberts checked himself out of a Maine hospital Tuesday after a medical emergency that illuminates the potential fragility of the Supreme Court.
One day after suffering a still-unexplained seizure, Roberts returned to his summer vacation home on remote Hupper Island and told President Bush there was no cause for alarm.
"It was a brief conversation, but one where the chief justice reassured the president that, in fact, he was doing fine," White House spokesman Tony Snow said.
But with four of the court's nine justices over the age of 70, and with the 52-year-old Roberts' health vulnerabilities now more fully exposed, judicial infirmity is the elephant in the room.
"I think it brings into sharp relief just how precarious the balance of power is on the court right now," Nan Aron, executive director of the liberal Alliance for Justice, said in an interview.
One justice, 74-year-old Ruth Bader Ginsburg, survived a bout with colorectal cancer in 1999.
In the two years that Roberts has been chief justice, many rulings have been 5-4 decisions, with Justice Anthony Kennedy providing a swing vote between two groups of four, one tilting liberal, the other conservative.
Aron said she's certain that the White House has a list of potential Supreme Court nominees, even though so far "all reports are the justices remain energized, with absolutely no signs of fatigue among them."
Roberts' release late Tuesday morning from the Penobscot Bay Medical Center didn't resolve questions about his health and future treatments. These include, for instance, whether doctors will prescribe drugs to prevent a recurrence of what a Supreme Court statement described as Roberts' "benign idiopathic seizure."
The phrase means that doctors don't know what caused Roberts to collapse on a dock.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, left, rides out to his vacation home in Port Clyde, Maine, shortly after leaving the hospital Tuesday.
And this doesn't?
Ruth ...........funny pic.
I’ve anchored in Port Clyde a few times in past years. It may have changed some recently, I think I saw a house going up on shore a few years ago, but on the whole it was a simple place, with lobster boats in the harbor rather than yachts.
It sounds as if Roberts is more attracted to the pleasures of the Maine coast than the social swim you find on the more fashionable islands.
Roberts’ seizure shows fragility of human life. Deal with it.
But if you take a page from the lib playbook, that seat must be reserved for a conservative white male. Precedent has been set!
I wonder if this sudden hand-wringing about the “frailty” of a 52-year-old man, coming just a few days after the NY Times, for no reason whatsoever, wrote a lengthy article about how it wouldn’t be unusual at all for the next president to simply add a few new Supreme Court justices, is part of the beginning of the next left-wing campaign.
And tomorrow a car accident or anuerism (sp) could kill any one of them....life IS fragile!
Ann Coulter said she looks like she was “fashioned from pipe cleaners.” LOL.
Ann shouldn’t talk. Look at her!
Well, OTOH, if AC is calling that addle-brained hag skinny...she’s frigging skinny.
Hmmm... well, it's been attempted before (by a Donk POTUS, of course, seeking a tilted judiciary to enforce "progressive" ideas.)
It failed then; I wonder if it could succeed with a Hillary as POTUS and a Donk congress?
~snorrfle!!~
People live long full lives with a history of seizures. He’s hardly in his grave at 52.
Think that the Rats are going to try and pack the Supreme Court again, like what FDR tried?
Exactly, but death doesn’t happen until it happens to liberals.
I’ve had seizures from a very young age. Easily controlled with meds. Long life ahead (knock on wood)
I’ve had seizures from a very young age. Easily controlled with meds. Long life ahead (knock on wood)
Hey, comparing Ann with Ginsberg is an insult to Ann! Ann may be thin, but she’s a hell of a lot more supple-looking and vibrant than Ruth Buzzie.
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