Washington (CNN) Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg took the bench at the Supreme Court Tuesday morning to hear oral arguments for the first time since she announced she'd undergone surgery in December for cancer.

She smiled slightly to the audience and was wearing one of her decorative neck collars -- a pearl jabot.

Ginsburg's return comes in time for the last three months of oral arguments in a term that will feature big cases on partisan gerrymandering, religious liberty and the Trump administration's decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census.

Ginsburg missed two weeks of oral arguments in January in order to recover from the surgery to remove two cancerous nodules from her lung. She followed the cases by reading transcripts and briefs from home, and she will vote in the cases she missed.

The cancer was first detected in November after Ginsburg fell in her office and was scanned as a part of her treatment for fractured ribs. After the surgery in December, the court announced that there was no remaining evidence of the disease and no other treatment was required.

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