A year after surgery for pancreatic cancer, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told an audience last week that she is feeling well -- and then took a dig at the senator who had claimed after her surgery that she would only have nine months to live. 
 
 "I am pleased to report that, contrary to Sen. Bunning's prediction, I am alive and in good health," she said. 
 
 Jim Bunning, R-Ky., made the comments during a private fundraiser on Feb. 21, 2009, when he described Ginsburg's cancer as "bad cancer -- the kind that you don't get better from." 
 
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 He later apologized in a statement in which he misspelled the Justice's name. "I apologize if my comments offended Justice Ginsberg," Bunning then said. 
 
 Three days later and just 11 days after her surgery, Ginsburg, 77, attended President Obama's first speech to Congress. She said later that she attended the speech in part to show the country that she was alive and well, contrary to the senator's dire prediction. 
 
 Ginsburg hasn't missed a day of arguments since her diagnosis and has appeared as sharp as ever during oral arguments, sometimes dominating the questioning. 
 
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 In her comments, made to the Pro Bono Institute on March 19 but only recently posted on the Supreme Court's website, Ginsburg also weighed in on the recent controversy , fueled by Liz Cheney, questioning the loyalty of U.S. lawyers representing accused terrorists. 
 
 Cheney, heading the group Keep America Safe, has criticized President Obama for naming nine lawyers to posts at the Department of Justice after the lawyers had provided legal assistance prior to their government service to Guantanamo Bay detainees. 
 
 Ginsburg said she was "unsettled, indeed alarmed" by such criticism. "One of the nine was a former law clerk of mine, a young man of great intelligence, integrity and devotion to the ideals that make the U.S.A. a great nation," she said. 
 
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 Ginsburg went on to praise lawyers who serve on a pro bono basis even for clients who might be unpopular. 
 
 "To that expression of the true America Way, one can only say Amen," she said. ||||| Remarks for Pro Bono Institute Reception 
 
 Washington, DC 
 
 March 19, 2010 
 
 Ruth Bader Ginsburg 
 
 Associate Justice 
 
 Supreme Court of the United States 
 
 Each year at this annual gathering, there is cause to applaud the efforts of the Pro Bono Institute. This year, more than ever, we can take pride in the Institute's initiatives and achievements. At a time when most news is not good, it is spirit lifting to know that law firms and in-house legal departments have not reduced—indeed they have substantially increased—their pro bono services. Under Esther Lardent's inspired leadership, that increase has been particularly strong in services rendered to the most needy in our communities. 
 
 Last year, barely a month after surgery for pancreatic cancer, I was glad just to be here. This year, I am pleased to report that, contrary to Senator Bunning's prediction, I am alive and in good health. 
 
 Supporters of the Institute are advancing a tradition that makes the private bar not a journeyman's guild, but a true profession. The best among lawyers helped to create, and now to sustain, that tradition. Louis Dembitz Brandeis, for example, who graced the Supreme Court bench from 1916 until 1939, was called "the People's Attorney" in his days at the bar. Devoting as many hours to nonpaying clients as he did to those who retained him, Brandeis invoked the law not simply in aid of the affluent, but to protect the oppressed, the poor, the minority, the loner. 
 
 The Institute honors tonight, as Zelon Award recipient, Brackett Denniston III, a pro bono champion throughout his legal career. As Senior Vice-President and General Counsel of GE, he strengthened and expanded the company's pro bono program, created under his predecessor, Ben Heineman. Regina Pisa will speak of Brackett Denniston's promotion of pro bono legal services, not only in the United States, but in diverse places around the globe. I will simply relate one incident indicative of his level head and readiness to oppose injustice. 
 
 I was unsettled, indeed alarmed, by press reports in early March about attacks on nine recent Department of Justice appointees. Their alleged transgression, while in private practice, they had provided legal assistance to Guantanamo Bay detainees. One of the nine was a former law clerk of mine, a young man of great intelligence, integrity, and devotion to the ideals that make the U.S.A. a Great Nation. 
 
 An email from Esther, received the very day the news broke, reminded me that the base assault was not the first of its kind. In 2007, the then Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs urged corporations to cease doing business with law firms on his not-so-little list. The list named several prominent law firms whose members had undertaken to represent Guantanamo detainees. Brackett Denniston answered the Deputy Assistant Secretary's suggestion in no uncertain terms. "Pro bono service and the rule of law," he said, "are great traditions in the American legal profession." We at GE have no intention of in any way [disturbing our relationship with law firms] on the basis of the pro bono, charitable, or public service [activities in which] lawyers in those firms choose to engage. "Justice is served," he added, "when there is quality representation even for the unpopular." To that expression of the true American way, one can only say Amen.
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg doesn’t intend to let Jim Bunning live down his statement that she had “bad cancer—the kind that you don’t get better from.” Bunning made the remark last February, when Ginsburg underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer, declaring that she had at most 9 months to live. Well, it’s a year later, and “I am pleased to report that, contrary to Sen. Bunning’s prediction, I am alive and in good health,” Ginsburg told an audience. Her remarks came in a speech at the Pro Bono Institute on March 19, but they were only recently published on the Supreme Court’s website. Ginsburg also took the opportunity to criticize Liz Cheney’s much-maligned ad attacking Justice Department lawyers who’d represented Guantanamo detainees, notes ABC. “One of the nine was a former law clerk of mine,” Ginsburg said, “a young man of great intelligence, integrity, and devotion to the ideals that make the USA a great nation.”