Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Dead At 87 After Battle With Stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has sadly passed away after a battle with cancer, which The Supreme Court announced on Sept. 18.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died at the age of 87 on Sept. 18, due to “complications from cancer,” which NPR sadly reported on Friday based on a press release from The Supreme Court. Ginsburg, who was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1993 by President Bill Clinton, was known for her tenacity, power, and staunch defense of women’s rights.

Ginsburg’s death follows a year of hospitalizations and health scares, including surgery for lung cancer and radiation treatment for pancreatic cancer. These were her third and fourth battles with cancer; she was diagnosed with and underwent surgery for early-stage pancreatic cancer in 2009, and received treatment for colon cancer in 1999. The justice was last hospitalized in November 2019, when she experienced “fever and chills,” according to a SCOTUS news release; doctors administered fluids and intravenous antibiotics, and she was released after two days. She was back on the bench at the Supreme Court days later, described as “fierce” and “hearty” during a second amendment hearing.

Ginsburg has only missed oral arguments during her 26 years as a Supreme Court justice, when she fell in her office and fractured three ribs in November 2018. She underwent surgery that December to remove cancerous nodules from her left lung, which were discovered after the fall. She worked from home during recovery instead, using transcripts and written briefs.

Justice Ginsburg, dubbed “RBG” in recent years, is a legend. Her 1993 arrival to the Supreme Court was the first Democratic appointment since 1967, when President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated Thurgood Marshall. Ginsburg was born in Brooklyn in 1933, and attended law school at Harvard and Columbia Universities. As a lawyer, she was a fierce advocate of women’s rights, and became the director of the Women’s Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union in the 1970s.

Her influence and will power to still serve as a justice in her 80s inspired a new generation of voters in the 2010s. Authors Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik dubbed her “Notorious RBG.” She was the subject of the 2018 biopic, On The Basis of Sex, in which she was played by Felicity Jones. And Kate McKinnon‘s portrayal of her on Saturday Night Live as a feisty contrarian who told politicians they’d been “Gins-burned” became one of her best known characters. Ginsburg said she loved it, by the way.

May she rest in peace.