Please pray for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg needs everyone to have her in our thoughts and prayers.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg today underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, according to a statement released by the court.

Ginsburg had no symptoms from the illness, apparently caught at an "early stage" during a routine checkup late last month, the court statement said.

Court officials said that a CT scan administered at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda detected a small tumor, "approximately 1 cm across, in the center of the pancreas."

At his regular news briefing, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters this afternoon that President Obama "has not talked with the justice, but his thoughts and prayers are with her and her family right now."

The justice, 75, has served on the court for 15 years, after being appointed by President Bill Clinton. Legal scholars consider Ginsburg a reliable liberal vote, and in her time on the bench she has fostered warm relationships with colleagues who espouse more conservative legal views.

Ginsburg will be hospitalized for another week to 10 days, attending surgeon Murray Brennan told court officials. Nine years ago, the justice was diagnosed with colon cancer, and she followed a regimen of radiation and chemotherapy.

The pancreas is a six-inch gland in the abdomen that makes insulin and other hormones. Pancreatic cancer is an especially lethal disease, according to information posted on the Web site of the National Cancer Institute. It can be cured only when discovered at an early stage, before it has spread. More than 37,000 cases of pancreatic cancer were reported last year. More than 34,000 people died of the disease that year.

Please keep the justice in your thoughts and prayers.