Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says she is ‘cancer free’ after successfully undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer in the summer.

At 86, Ginsburg is the oldest justice on the court and her health has long been the subject of speculation due to its potential impact on the court’s makeup.

The liberal justice has now beaten cancer for the fourth time.

‘I’m cancer free. That’s good,’ she told CNN on Wednesday.

The network said Ginsburg was ‘sounding energized and speaking animatedly’ when she gave the interview.

In November, Ginsburg was released from hospital in Baltimore after being admitted for chills and fever.

Ginsburg had received treatment including antibiotics and fluids, which led to an abatement of her symptoms.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (center) said on Wednesday that she is 'cancer free'. She is seen above standing between former Pennsylvania state senator Constance Williams (left) and NPR journalist Nina Totenberg (right) in Philadelphia last month

Her health is closely watched because a Supreme Court vacancy would give President Donald Trump the opportunity to appoint a third justice to the nine-member court and shift it further to the right.

The court's 5-4 conservative majority includes two justices named by Trump - Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

Ginsburg gave herself a clean bill of health just as the court is expected to rule on major issues in the first half of 2020.

Later this month, the court will hear arguments in Espinoza v. Montana Dept. of Revenue.

Last year, Montana's top court struck down a law granting a state tax credit that could help students attend private schools including religious ones.

The justices took up an appeal by three mothers of Christian private school students of a decision by Montana’s top court striking down the program because it ran afoul of a state constitutional ban on aid to religious institutions.

Ginsburg's health is closely watched because another Supreme Court vacancy would give President Donald Trump the opportunity to appoint a third justice to the nine-member court and move it further to the right. She is pictured above at the Supreme Court in November 2018

Churches and Christian groups have pushed for expanding access to public dollars for places of worship and religious schools, testing the limits of secularism in the United States.

In early March, the court will also hear a challenge to a Louisiana law that required doctors performing abortions to have 'admitting privileges' at a nearby hospital.

If the law is enacted, it could leave just one functioning abortion clinic in the entire state of Louisiana.

Also in March, the court will hear arguments over whether state and federal investigators could gain access to Trump's financial records.

Decisions are also expected in blockbuster cases involving the future of the Affordable Care Act as well as the DACA program for the children of undocumented migrants.

Ginsburg has had four occurrences of cancer, including two in the past 14 months.

She had lung cancer surgery in December 2018 and received radiation treatment for a tumor on her pancreas in August.

Ginsburg had previously been treated for pancreatic cancer in 2009 and colon cancer in 1999.

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

The court is scheduled to hear several blockbuster cases in 2020, including the future of the Affordable Care Act, DACA, and President Trump's tax returns. From left to right, second row: Neil Gorsuch, Sonia Sotomayor; Elena Kagan; and Brett Kavanaugh. From left to right, first row: Stephen Breyer; Clarence Thomas; John Roberts, Ginsburg, and Samuel Alito

Ginsburg spent the early part of her career as a professor at the Rutgers University law school in New Jersey and at Columbia University law school.

She started the American Civil Liberties Union's Women's Rights Project in the 1970s.

Before the high court, she served as a federal appeals court judge in Washington DC for 13 years.

Her most recent diagnosis did little to derail her active public speaking schedule though, as she decided to embark on a multi-state tour.

'This latest has been my fourth cancer battle and I found each time that when I'm active, I'm much better than if I'm just lying about and feeling sorry for myself,' she said in September, in New York, at an event hosted by Moment Magazine.

'It's a necessity to get up and go, it's stimulating, and somehow all these appearances that I've had since the end of August whatever my temporary disability is, it stops and I'm OK for the time of the event.'