WASHINGTON - U S Chief Justice Roberts was rushed to hospital after suffering a seizure at his Maine home, a Supreme Court spokeswoman confirmed. She however added that Roberts was fully recovered, but would stay overnight at the hospital purely as a precautionary measure.
Roberts, who is one of the youngest of the Court justices, previously suffered a similar seizure in 1993, but has no medical issues to account for it. Seizures typically occur because of abnormal electrical activity within the brain.
The Chief Justice is known to have suffered an idiopathic seizure for which there is no known cause as such.
"Chief Justice John Roberts, Jr. took a fall about 2 p.m. today near his summer home in Maine after suffering what doctors describe as a benign idiopathic seizure," said a statement issued by court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg. "He was taken by ambulance to Penobscot Bay Medical Centre in Rockport, Maine, where he underwent a thorough neurological evaluation, which revealed no cause for concern."
President George W. Bush appointed Roberts to the Supreme Court because of his credentials as a staunch conservative. Roberts replaced William Rehnquist on September 29, 2005. The latter had died of cancer. Roberts suffered a seizure during a recess of the Supreme Court. However had he suffered the same during Court sessions, the other eight justices could still have heard cases and made rulings as well.
