People are asking what it means that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts suffered a “benign idiopathic seizure” yesterday, his second in 14 years. According to the Associated Press:

By definition, someone who has had more than one seizure without any other cause is determined to have epilepsy, said Dr. Marc Schlosberg, a neurologist at Washington Hospital Center, who is not involved in the Roberts’ case.

Whether Roberts will need anti-seizure medications to prevent another is something he and his doctor will have to decide.

But after two seizures, the likelihood of another at some point is greater than 60 percent.

“When it’s going to occur, obviously nobody knows,” Schlosberg said.

Roberts’ previous seizure was when he was golfing in 1993, and also happened outside. My non-medical advice given that precedent would be that Robert should wear hats and make sure to drink lots of fluids when he spends time outdoors during the summer. Given that everything else was ruled out, the most likely explanation for the seizure, looking at his packed travel schedule since the Court adjourned in late June, is the impact of multiple changes in temperature, time, and pressure on the neurobiology of an organically susceptible individual. The heat of the July day, which Roberts had spent running errands before his seizure, then worked itself upon this already disrupted ground.

Roberts, the youngest person on the court, will likely suffer another seizure in his lifetime, and may need at some point to take anti-seizure medication, which can affect cognition. Until that time, however, I think it is far better for the nation to have a Roberts on the court who is conscious of his human frailty, than one who judges only from the perspective of a hale and powerful man.