If you watched the State of the Union address earlier this year, you might have noticed that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg appeared to nod off at one point during the speech. Not that President Obama was boring. Instead, it turns out that Justice Ginsburg–along with the other members of the Court were a little…shall we say, tipsy.
As Ginsburg tells it:
“The audience, for the most part is awake, because they’re bobbing up and down, and we sit there, stone-faced, sober judges. But we’re not, at least I wasn’t, 100 percent sober.”
Prior to the big speech, the Justices had a meal in their chambers, and Justice Anthony Kennedy decided to bring some refreshments. Ginsburg said she had no intention of drinking anything but couldn’t help herself:
“Before we went to the State of the Union, Justice Kennedy brought in … it was an Opus something or other, very fine California wine, and I vowed this year, just sparkling water, stay away from the wine. But in the end, the dinner was so delicious, it needed wine.”
Justice Ginsburg’s granddaughter caught her taking a cat nap at the State of the Union and called her:
?”So I got a call when I came home from one of my granddaughters and she said, ‘Bubbe, you were sleeping at the State of the Union!'”
The 81-year-old Associate Justice, who goes by the Twitter handle “Notorious RBG” has dozed off at previous Presidential addresses. In 2012, cameras caught her with her eyes closed and leaning forward in her chair. Then, as now, Ginsburg said it was a pre-speech bottle of wine Kennedy brought that was to blame.
So the next time you hear the expression that someone is “sober as a judge,” you might want to remember that isn’t always the case.
Watch Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg fall asleep at the 2015 SOTU Address!
