Brennan to Be 3rd Justice to Undergo Prostate Tests

Justice William J. Brennan Jr., the Supreme Court’s senior member and leading liberal, is following the advice of two justices with prostate cancer by being tested at the Mayo Clinic for prostate trouble, a court spokeswoman said today.

However, the spokeswoman, Toni House, said it is not believed that Brennan’s prostate trouble, which developed last spring, is due to cancer.

“If things go as anticipated, I expect to undergo a routine prostate procedure later this week,” Brennan, who is 81, said in a statement. “I plan and fully expect to participate in the court’s October term.”

Brennan arrived at the clinic in Rochester, Minn., on Sunday and is expected to remain there at least through this week. The justice most likely will undergo a transurethral resection, clinic spokesman Michael O’Hara said.

A similar procedure was performed on President Reagan in January.

Brennan is the third justice to have prostate trouble this year. Justices Harry A. Blackmun and Lewis F. Powell Jr. both were found to have prostate cancer and both were treated at the Mayo Clinic.

Powell, 80, resigned from the court in June, citing the potential of a recurrence of his health problems. Blackmun, 78, last week finished the first half of his treatment and plans to return next month to complete it.

Brennan said in his statement that his doctors had recommended for some months that he have the prostate procedure done, but he postponed it to finish the court term in June and then deliver a series of lectures in Austria in July.

In 1979 Brennan had a stroke that left his right hand partially paralyzed, and a year earlier he was treated for a cancerous growth on a vocal cord.

Brennan, widely considered the leading liberal on the court, was appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956.