Justice Ginsburg, 85, asked crisp and clear questions of both sides in a patent case in her return to the bench about two months after cancer surgery.
WASHINGTON — Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg returned to the Supreme Court bench on Tuesday, about two months after cancer surgery. She had missed arguments in the meantime, in her first absences since she joined the court in 1993, but had continued to participate in the court’s decisions by reading briefs and transcripts.
Tuesday’s argument was a technical one, considering whether the federal government may challenge patents in a specialized court. Justice Ginsburg asked crisp and clear questions of both sides, and she seemed to express skepticism of one aspect of the government’s argument.
“The government effectively gets two bites of the apple,” she said, characterizing the patent owner’s argument in the case, Return Mail Inc. v. United States Postal Service, No. 17-1594. “Everybody else gets just one.”
The court has said that post-surgery evaluations have shown that Justice Ginsburg, who is 85 and has suffered a number of health setbacks over the years, is cancer free.
Before the justices took the bench, the Supreme Court issued a decision in a death penalty case and agreed to hear a case on water pollution.
