WASHINGTON—Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had surgery Thursday for what apparently is early stage pancreatic cancer, the court’s public information office announced.

The 75-year-old Ginsburg underwent the surgery at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. She probably will remain in the hospital for seven to 10 days, according to her attending physician, Dr. Murray Brennan.

In theory, that schedule means Ginsburg could return to the bench when oral arguments resume Feb. 23. In practice, the National Cancer Institute notes that most patients who undergo surgery for pancreatic cancer “need to rest at home for about a month.”

More broadly, Ginsburg’s diagnosis with a dangerous form of cancer underscores the fragility of the court’s current makeup and the likelihood that, for one reason or another, it could change as early as this year.

“We obviously would love to have her stay on the court,” Kathryn Kolbert, the president of People for the American Way, a liberal-leaning interest group, said in an interview. “She’s probably the most liberal justice on the court, and she is also the only woman on the current court.”

Even before Ginsburg’s diagnosis became public, Kolbert added, “the new administration has obviously been thinking about who a new court nominee might be.”