Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer Recovering From Shoulder Surgery After Falling Off His Bike

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer holds up a copy of the United States Constitution as he speaks at Boston University School of Law in Boston, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013. (AP)

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer had surgery on his right shoulder Saturday after fracturing it in a bicycle accident.

Breyer, 74, was taken by ambulance to MedStar Georgetown University Hospital after falling near the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington on Friday, NBC News reported. He underwent successful reverse shoulder replacement surgery to repair the fracture; a court spokeswoman said he was expected to make a full recovery.

According to the AP, the justice broke his collarbone in 2011 and sustained broken ribs and a punctured lung in another bike accident in 1993, one year before President Bill Clinton appointed him to the court.

Breyer, considered part of the court's liberal wing, has had a spate of bad luck in the last year or so: his Washington home was burglarized in May, just months after he was robbed by a machete-wielding intruder while at his vacation home in the Caribbean.