People across the U.S. who have been holding their breath since news of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s fall and three fractured ribs broke on Wednesday can exhale.
Ginsburg, 85, is recovering well and already working again, according to her nephew Daniel Stiepleman. Stiepleman told Reuters that Ginsburg is “doing great” and is even making jokes.
“The last I heard she was up and working, of course, because what else would she be doing, and cracking jokes,” he said. “I can’t promise they were good jokes but they were jokes.”
Stiepleman wrote the script for the film On the Basis of Sex about his aunt’s work as a young lawyer, which premiered Thursday. Felicity Jones, who plays the part of Ginsburg, told USA Today at the premiere that she had also been assured by Stiepleman that Ginsburg was doing well, while director Mimi Leder told the audience in attendance that she had it “on good authority” that Ginsburg “is recovering well and currently rushing folks out of the hospital room so she can work.”
Ginsburg, who is the Supreme Court’s oldest justice, is also considered one of the most liberal. While she has already survived two bouts of cancer and is known for maintaining a rigorous workout routine, many feared the worst following her Wednesday fall.
If Ginsburg were to be forced to retire due to poor health, it would likely give President Trump an opportunity to nominate a third Supreme Court justice, pushing the increasingly conservative court further to the right.
Ginsburg missed the formal investiture ceremony for new Justice Brett Kavanaugh on Thursday due to her fall.
On Friday morning, Supreme Court public information officer Kathy Arberg told The Hill that Ginsburg had been discharged from the hospital and is working from home.