npr:

For the first time in her 25-year career on the Supreme Court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was not on the bench to start the new year.

After the 85-year-old justice was operated on for lung cancer, she decided to work from home rather than return to the court two weeks after surgery. She’s expected to make a full recovery and be back at the court soon. A fair amount is known about Ginsburg’s cancers and surgery, but the history of Supreme Court justices and their health is murkier.

That’s, in part, because the justices — to this day — prefer to keep these matters to themselves as much as possible. But also justices didn’t used to be as public facing as they are today, what with writing books and doing interviews, let alone appearing in Oscar-nominated documentaries or having feature films based on their lives.