The secret to a good marriage is to be "a little deaf:" Ginsburg

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Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg shared her mother-in-law's secret to a happy marriage, first with Jennifer Lopez and then with the audience at the National Book Festival Saturday.

NPR correspondent Nina Totenberg first asked Justice Ginsburg how did the meeting with Jennifer Lopez came about.

Ginsburg said the request came from the singer, "I was called about a month or so ago by Jennifer Lopez and she said that she would like to meet me and introduce her fianc�, Alex Rodriguez, so they came to chambers and we had a very nice visit, she mostly wanted to ask if I had any secret about a happy marriage, now A Rod is traveling with her to concerts all over the world."

Totenberg followed up, asking if Ginsburg shared what her own mother-in-law had advised when she was a newlywed.

Ginsburg first chuckled, then said, "On the day I was married, my mother-in-law, I was married at her home, she took me aside and said she wanted to tell me what was the secret of a happy marriage. And I said I would be happy to hear it. And she responded, 'it helps sometimes to be a little deaf.' And that good advice I have followed every workplace, including the good job I have, so if an unkind word or thoughtless word is said, you just tune out!"

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who is on the court's liberal wing, told a packed audience Saturday that she was on her way to "being very well" after cancer treatment, and will be prepared when the court's next term begins in October.

Ginsburg, 86, who was recently treated for pancreatic cancer, seemed sharp but accepted assistance coming on to the stage and spoke from a sitting position.

"This audience can see that I am alive. And I'm on my way to being very well," she said at the National Book Festival in Washington.

She indicated that she had no plans to step down, and was getting ready for the next term. "I will be prepared for when the time comes," she said. "I love my job. It is the best and hardest job that I ever had."

The oldest justice, Ginsburg was appointed in 1993 by Democratic President Bill Clinton.

In addition to pancreatic cancer, Ginsburg had two cancerous nodules in her left lung removed last December. She was previously treated for pancreatic cancer in 2009 and colon cancer in 1999.

If Ginsburg, one of the nine-member court's four liberal justices, were unable to continue serving, Republican President Donald Trump could replace her with a conservative, further shifting the court to the right. Trump has added two justices since becoming president in January 2017, cementing its 5-4 conservative majority.