Justice Stephen Breyer Has Shoulder Surgery After Bike Accident

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is at a Washington, D.C., hospital recovering from shoulder surgery. Breyer required shoulder replacement surgery after he fell from his bicycle on Friday.

The justice was riding his bicycle near the Korean War Veterans Memorial at the time of the accident. Supreme Court spokesperson Kathleen Arberg explained of Breyer’s condition:

“Associate Justice Stephen Breyer underwent reverse shoulder replacement surgery for a proximal humerus fracture this morning at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.”

Arberg added of the injury, “The fracture was sustained in his right shoulder in a fall from his bicycle on Friday afternoon, April 26, near the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. He was taken by ambulance to the hospital following his injury.”

It is not the first time Justice Breyer has been seriously injured in a bicycle accident. The justice broke his collarbone in an accident in 2011. He also sustained broken ribs and a punctured lung in a bike accident in 1993, the year before he joined the nation’s highest court.

Justice Breyer was appointed in 1994 by President Clinton. He is currently 74 years old. Breyer’s shoulder surgery on Saturday was successful and the justice is resting comfortably in his hospital room. He is expected to be released from the facility early in the week.

The news of Breyer’s shoulder injury and hospital stay comes at the end of the court’s current term. Last week the court held the last arguments of the term. They are now racing to finish their opinions, four of which they will present on Monday. Their term will end the last week of June.

Breyer, along with the rest of the Supreme Court, heard two landmark cases this past month involving gay marriage, including California’s Proposition 8. It is not clear if the court will issue rulings on these hearings on Monday, or wait until another day.