Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader GinsbergReuters

US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was being treated for a possible infection and was expected to stay in the hospital for a few days following a medical procedure, the Supreme Court said in a statement Tuesday, according to The Associated Press.

The court said that the 87-year-old Ginsburg went to a hospital in Washington on Monday evening after experiencing fever and chills. She then underwent a procedure at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore on Tuesday afternoon to clean out a bile duct stent that was placed last August when she was treated for a cancerous tumor on her pancreas.

The statement said the justice “is resting comfortably and will stay in the hospital for a few days to receive intravenous antibiotic treatment.”

Ginsburg spent a night in the hospital in May with an infection caused by a gallstone. While in the hospital, she participated in arguments the court heard by telephone because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Ginsburg, the oldest justice on the court and one of its three Jewish justices, has faced several health scares over the past year.

In November of last year, Ginsburg returned to the bench after missing courtroom arguments due to illness.

In January of that year, Ginsburg missed arguments for the first time in her 25-year tenure on the US Supreme Court in the aftermath of surgery to remove cancer from her lungs.

In November of 2018, she cracked three ribs in a fall at the court. The Jewish judge was discharged from the hospital the next day and was back at her notoriously vigorous workouts within a week.

Speaking at a news conference in the Rose Garden on Tuesday evening, President Donald Trump was asked about Ginsburg. He said he hadn’t heard she had been hospitalized and added, “I wish her the best. I hope she’s better.”