Ouch, this is a cold-hearted thing to say:
The Louisville Courier-Journal (2/22, Gerth) reported that Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning (R) “predicted over the weekend that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg would likely be dead from pancreatic cancer within nine months.” In a speech “Saturday at the Hardin County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner” in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, “Bunning said he supports conservative judges ‘and that’s going to be in place very shortly because Ruth Bader Ginsburg … has cancer.’ ‘Bad cancer. The kind that you don’t get better from,'” Bunning said, adding, “Even though she was operated on, usually, nine months is the longest that anybody would live after (being diagnosed) with pancreatic cancer.” The Courier-Journal noted, “Ginsburg, who is 75, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer earlier this month and surgeons removed a small tumor that had not spread. Doctors termed it a ‘Stage 1’ cancer, meaning they found it in the early stages when it is most curable.”
In a story headlined “Sen. Bunning counting Justice Ginsburg’s days,” The Hill (2/23, Wilson) follows up on the “report in the Louisville Courier-Journal,” noting, “Though mortality rates for pancreatic cancer are high, Ginsburg’s was caught unusually early, giving her a better chance for long-term survival. Ginsburg is one of the most liberal members of the Supreme Court, a reliable ally of Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter and Stephen Breyer among the Court’s left-leaning bloc. … Ginsburg is seen as one of the most likely members of the Court to step down during President Obama’s first term, along with the 88-year-old Stevens.”
From the American Association for Justice news release.
