Salon:Medical experts: Rehnquist's condition could be severe

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The Supreme Court's brief public announcement on Monday that Chief Justice William Rehnquist has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer, underwent a tracheotomy, and is expected to return to the bench on Nov. 1, likely masks the severity of his condition.

Numerous medical studies only mention tracheotomy -- in which surgeons cut a hole into a patient's windpipe to aid breathing -- as a treatment for a rare form of thyroid cancer called anaplastic carcinoma. According to the University of Virginia Health Center, "anaplastic carcinoma is an extremely serious and aggressive thyroid cancer which often results in the death of the patient … within several months of diagnosis."
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How can a man who cannot talk manage the Supreme Court? Reading this, there is no way that the republicans can put a 5-4 majority on the SCOTUS to take this election. Maybe Rehnquist will sign a power of attorney and vote from his hospital bed (not serious).

anaplastic carcinoma is the first thyroid malignancy I'd think of. Not the best prognosis, to put it mildly. One week recovery from all that? I doubt it. One can only hope for the best in such cases.


(edited for additional comments)

If Rehnquist resigns, or can not continue to perform his duties on the SCOTUS, before the Senate reconvenes on Nov 16th, doesn't Bush get to make a recess appointment?

aren't final without an overwhelming majority vote?

means also that his breathing was constricted by the mass, which probably was the first clue that he was sick.

I think this "I'll be back at work in a week" attitude is charming, but not practical.

Do they also have a stand-in CJ similar to the president pro tem in the senate? If the CJ is unavailable?