BOSTON -- Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 75, visited students at the New England School of Law Friday, telling them there could be an opening on the Supreme Court soon, saying the justices only take pictures together when a new justice joins the court.

"We haven't had any of those for some time, but surely we will soon," Ginsburg said.

The Supreme Court justice spoke at the school's annual "Law Day," and her talk covered a range of topics, from a tutorial on the landmark 1967 Loving v. Virginia decision on the legality of interracial marriage to the status of gender in the U.S.

Ginsburg told the audience of about 150 students that she's lived long enough to see such cases make big changes in the nation, changes that have allowed for the inclusion of two women on the Supreme Court and an African-American president who is a product of an interracial marriage.

"Considering how far we have come, there is good cause for optimism about our country's future," Ginsburg said.

Although Ginsburg spoke at length about the Loving case, she declined to talk about gay marriage, saying it would not be right for her to be seen as having prejudged an issue that may well come before the Supreme Court.

She did say one of her favorite court decisions involved the Virginia Military Academy. The 1996 decision, which Ginsburg wrote the majority opinion for, found that it was unconstitutional for a school supported by public funds to exclude women. VMI is one of the oldest state-supported military colleges in the country.

Ginsburg had surgery last month for pancreatic cancer but returned to the bench a little more than two weeks later.

She was appointed to the court in 1993 by then-President Bill Clinton.