U.S. Chief Justice William Rehnquist, the leader of the Supreme Court’s conservative majority, has undergone surgery for thyroid cancer, suddenly throwing a political spotlight on the highest court in the land just eight days before the presidential election.

Disclosure of Rehnquist’s illness on Monday drew attention to the powerful role in politics of the Supreme Court, which decided the outcome of the disputed 2000 presidential election in a split decision in favor of George W. Bush.

The next president may have the opportunity to name several justices, which could significantly shift the balance of power in the Supreme Court between liberals and conservatives.

Rehnquist, 80, a conservative who has been on the Supreme Court for more than 30 years, was admitted to Bethesda Naval Hospital on Friday and underwent a tracheotomy on Saturday, said spokeswoman Kathy Arberg.

She said Rehnquist was expected to be on the bench when the high court reconvenes on Nov. 1 after a two-week recess. He is expected to be released from the hospital later this week.

Arberg was unable to give details about Rehnquist’s type of cancer or his treatment.

But outside experts said Rehnquist could be at higher risk because of his age, sex and because he had a tracheotomy.

Gilbert Daniels, a Harvard Medical School professor, said, “I’m concerned that he needed a tracheotomy because that generally suggests he had some kind of thyroid cancer that was aggressive, that was growing into his trachea.”

SOMETHING PECULIAR?

Daniels, co-director of the Thyroid Clinic at Massachusetts General Hospital, said a very small percentage of all thyroid cancer patients require a tracheotomy. “That says something peculiar is going on but it doesn’t say what,” he said.

According to the American Cancer Society, various forms of thyroid cancer are expected to affect 23,600 Americans in 2004. It will kill an estimated 1,500 people this year.

Supreme Court justices serve until they die or retire. The last change in the court’s composition took place more than 10 years ago, the longest period of stability since 1823.

The current nine-judge court is generally split 5-4 along conservative and liberal lines. Political and legal experts agree that the next president’s new appointments to the bench could have a lasting impact on its decisions on such issues as abortion and church-state separation.

Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic strategist in New York, predicted the Rehnquist announcement will help Democrats by energizing women’s groups to turn out at the polls on Nov. 2.

“Thus far the campaign has been focused on the economy, on the war in Iraq and the war on terrorism. Now, people will begin to focus in the last minutes of the campaign on the Supreme Court and who should fill those vacancies,” he said.

Ralph Neas, president of the liberal lobbying group People for the American Way, said the reports by the news media about Rehnquist’s health will remind voters the Supreme Court represents a crucial election issue.

As a justice for 15 years and then as chief justice since 1986, Rehnquist has led a conservative legal revolution to expand states’ rights, to restrict appeals by death-row inmates and to allow more public funding of religious activities.

If there is a Supreme Court vacancy, the president would nominate the replacement, who must be confirmed by the Senate.

President Bush has cited Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, both staunch conservatives, as models for his appointments. His Democratic rival, Sen. John Kerry, has cited his vote to confirm Scalia as one of his biggest regrets. (Additional reporting by Maggie Fox and Greg Frost in Boston)