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Ruth Bader Ginsburg Always Falls Asleep at the State of the Union Because She’s Wasted

Speaking last week at the National Museum of American History in Washington, DC, Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor opened up about the court’s food culture and culinary traditions.
Photo by Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Speaking last week at the National Museum of American History in Washington, DC, Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor opened up about the court's food culture and culinary traditions. But, as usual the best revelations were about booze.

Together the justices revealed some fun food facts. Did you know Ginsburg's late husband was an accomplished baker? And that before he died would bake a cake for each of the justices on their birthdays? Or that when a new judge joins the court, it falls to the second-most-junior judge to throw them a welcome feast? For Sotomayor, that meant her dinner was planned by the very conservative Samuel Alito, who, according to NPR, included a Spanish guitar player in a nod to Sonia's heritage. (Sounds super awkward to us, especially because Sotomayor is of Puerto Rican descent and not Spanish, but she seemed to appreciate it.)

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The best bits of the evening were when Ginsburg talked about hitting the bottle. You may have noticed the 83-year-old judge and reluctant pop culture icon has some trouble staying awake at the State of the Union every year. Well, she has a good reason for that: As she told attendees at last week's event, she's hammered. Or, in the more measured words befitting a Supreme Court justice, "not 100-percent sober."

It seems the judges get together every year for dinner before the President's speech, and sometimes things get a bit out of hand (read: the wine flows freely). Ginsburg recalled that the first time she passed out during the State of the Union she had intended to stick to sparkling water, but then Californian Justice Kennedy brought "a couple of bottles of Opus One from California," and, well, you know how it goes.

READ MORE: Inside the Hanoi Restaurant Where President Obama and Anthony Bourdain Dined Last Night

We guess once you've tried it drunk, there really is no going back to sitting through the State of the Union sober, and now Ginsburg's televised nap has become something of a tradition.

At least Ginsburg says she is aware of her condition. She used to get Justice Souter to sit next to her and keep her awake, but sadly, Souter is retired and Justices Kennedy and Breyer are "are sort of timid about that."

Cheers, Ruth.