U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg recovering after heart procedure

By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg underwent a heart procedure at a Washington hospital on Wednesday after reporting discomfort following routine exercise, a court statement said. Ginsburg, 81, was resting comfortably after having a stent placed in her right coronary artery and is expected to be discharged from MedStar Washington Hospital Center within 48 hours, the statement said. A stent is a mesh tube used to improve blood flow in clogged arteries. Ginsburg reported discomfort after routine exercise on Tuesday night, according to the court statement. She was at the Supreme Court on Tuesday and met with a Reuters reporter in her chambers just before she was to exercise. She appeared healthy and alert. The oldest member of the nine-justice court, Ginsburg has survived serious bouts with cancer in 1999 and 2009. Ginsburg is the most senior liberal justice on the conservative-leaning court. As such, she is often the lead dissenting voice when the court is split 5-4. In statements from the bench she has challenged the conservative majority's curtailing of federal voting rights law and, in June, its position that for-profit employers can opt out of birth-control coverage under federal healthcare law for religious reasons. Ginsburg, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1993, has resisted calls from liberal activists that she should retire from the bench before President Barack Obama leaves office in early 2017. In a July interview with Reuters, Ginsburg said she did not intend to leave the bench in the near future unless her health changed. She said she underwent regular medical check-ups for cancer and worked out twice a week with a personal trainer. "Thank goodness I haven't slowed down," Ginsburg said at the time. (Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Additional reporting by Joan Biskupic; Editing by Bill Trott and Mohammad Zargham)