Brennan Having Prostate Tests at Mayo Clinic

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 Monday.

However, the spokeswoman, Toni House, said it is not believed that Brennan’s prostate trouble, which developed last spring, is attributable 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, clinic spokesman Michael O’Hara said. The justice most likely will undergo a transurethral resection, 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. were diagnosed as having prostate cancer and both were treated at the Mayo Clinic.

Powell, 80, resigned from the court in June, citing the potential for 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.