Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was absent from the Supreme Court bench for the second day in a row on Tuesday.

Chief Justice John Roberts made the announcement that Ginsburg was unable to attend arguments as he opened court Tuesday morning.

Ginsburg, 85, is still recovering from a surgery she underwent last month to remove two cancerous nodules from her lung. She has also survived other bouts of cancer which never caused her to miss oral arguments.

Roberts opened court Monday by saying that while Ginsburg wouldn’t be present for oral arguments, she would participate in the cases by reading transcripts. He made no mention on Monday of her recent surgery.

Ginsburg had two earlier cancer surgeries in 1999 and 2009 that did not cause her to miss court sessions. She also has broken ribs on at least two occasions.

The court said doctors found the growths on Ginsburg’s lung when she was being treated for fractured ribs she suffered in a fall at her office on Nov. 7.

After past health scares, Ginsburg has come back to work relatively quickly. In 2009, she was at the court for arguments on Feb. 23, 18 days after surgery for pancreatic cancer.

Weeks after her fall in November, Ginsburg was asking questions at high court arguments, speaking at a naturalization ceremony for new citizens and being interviewed at screenings of the new movie about her, “On the Basis of Sex.”

Her latest surgery was a procedure called a pulmonary lobectomy at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. The court said in a release issued the day of the surgery that doctors found “no evidence of any remaining disease” and scans taken before the surgery showed no cancerous growths elsewhere in her body. No additional treatment is currently planned, the court said.

Appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1993, Ginsburg rebuffed suggestions from some liberals that she should step down in the first two years of President Barack Obama’s second term, when Democrats controlled the Senate and would have been likely to confirm her successor.

She already has hired clerks for the term that extends into 2020, indicating she has no plans to retire.

If she did step down, President Donald Trump would have another opportunity to move a conservative court even more to the right. On the day she had surgery, Trump tweeted his wishes for Ginsburg’s “full and speedy recovery!”

(AP)