From Yahoo:
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, ailing with cancer, has been hospitalized with a fever, spurring more retirement speculation about the 33-year veteran of the Supreme Court.Two nominations and a Chief Justice appointment sounds like the makings of a nuclear war. Or was it neukular?
The 80-year-old Rehnquist was taken by ambulance to Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va., on Tuesday night and was admitted for observation and tests, Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said.
There was no immediate word on his condition Wednesday afternoon.
President Bush was unaware of Rehnquist's hospitalization until it was publicly announced.
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It was the second time in less than four months that Rehnquist was taken by ambulance to the hospital. In March, he was brought in with breathing problems. He did not stay overnight then.
Rehnquist has a tracheotomy tube that helps him breathe. He has been treated since October for thyroid cancer, undergoing chemotherapy and radiation. The illness led to a five-month absence from the bench, although he continued working at home and at the court during his convalescence.
The chief justice has refused to say if he plans to retire, telling reporters camped outside his house last week: "That's for me to know and you to find out."
Dr. Kenneth Burman, a thyroid specialist at Washington Hospital Center who is not involved in Rehnquist's treatment, said it was not unusual for a cancer patient to check into the hospital with fever. "It could be a minor local infection around the tracheotomy tube," he said.
A more serious possibility, he said, is that the cancer has spread and caused infection. Other possibilities, he said, are pneumonia, allergies to medicine or reaction to chemotherapy.
