ABC News legal correspondent blog: Faith & frailty
...Typically, the justices rise from the bench, turn around and leave the courtroom for their chambers in very short order. Usually, spectators wait no more than a few seconds before the last justice disappears behind the red curtains. Then the court officers allow us all to file out of other exits at the front and sides of the courtroom. But today, we all were held in place for nearly a half a minute more –an eternity to a TV reporter--as Justice Ginsburg slowly collected her things and carefully left the courtroom. Justice Souter lingered behind at his chair, waiting to walk alongside her—almost as if he wanted to see if she needed assistance.
It was strikingly odd. I was standing next to Jim Vincini of Reuters, and we looked at each other with some alarm. No one could recall seeing Ginsburg in such slow motion, and it immediately begged the question of her health—which of course begs the question of whether any of the justices are going to be leaving the court anytime soon and give George W. Bush his third nomination. I have predicted with confidence that no one else will leave by design, and I’ve flatly rejected any suggestions that Justice Ginsburg was not at the top of her game physically. She’ll be 74 next month, and she’s active and social—and said to be recovered from her bout with cancer. People who don’t know Justice Ginsburg always say she looks so slight, so frail. But that’s Justice Ginsburg. She is slight. Even when she fell asleep during oral argument awhile back, I didn’t read anything into it since she’d just returned from out of the country and could easily have been suffering from jet lag.
The Court’s public information office said this afternoon that Ginsburg is absolutely fine. And she did ask several of the questions during the argument—she was focused and involved. So perhaps she twisted an ankle during her workouts ( she does exercise regularly). But it still made me think I’d better start pulling those possible retirement files together. As Justice O’Connor showed us all in 2005, big surprises can happen.
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