Ginsburg speaks in North Little Rock, says work on court 'saved me'

NORTH LITTLE ROCK — Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said Tuesday night that her work on the bench saved her during her cancer treatments, as the judge was given a rock-star reception in the home state of the president who nominated her to the nation’s highest court.

Ginsburg told a packed arena that she was “feeling very good tonight,” following the 86-year-old’s disclosure last month that she had completed three weeks of outpatient radiation therapy for a cancerous tumor on her pancreas and is now disease-free. It was the fourth time over the past two decades that Ginsburg, the leader of the court’s liberal wing, has been treated for cancer. She had colorectal cancer in 1999, pancreatic cancer in 2009 and lung cancer surgery in December.

“I think my work is what saved me because instead of dwelling on my physical discomforts if I have an opinion to write or a brief to read, I know I’ve just got to get it done so I have to get over it,” she said during a one-hour interview on stage with NPR Reporter Nina Totenberg at Verizon Arena. About 13,000 attended the event, which was hosted by the Clinton Foundation and the University of Arkansas’ Clinton School of Public Service, and more had been on a waiting list to attend.

The lecture had been moved to the arena to accommodate the crowd and was sandwiched between a concert by “Weird Al” Yankovic over the weekend and KISS on Thursday.

Read more: https://www.swtimes.com/news/20190904/ginsburg-speaks-in-north-little-rock-says-work-on-court-saved-me
(Fort Smith Times Record)