--- title: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Admits She Was Tipsy at State of the Union description: She blamed her televised nap on wine canonical: https://time.com/3708792/rbg-sober-sotu/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-13T12:40:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T04:24:24.859Z article:section: Politics og:title: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Admits She Was Tipsy at State of the Union og:description: She blamed her televised nap on wine og:url: https://time.com/3708792/rbg-sober-sotu/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltefcc2ea1407af87f/69877f2f5f570f3e06b15453/451590080.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, celebrating her 20th anniversary on the bench, is photographed in the West conference room at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on Aug. 30, 2013. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Admits She Was Tipsy at State of the Union twitter:description: She blamed her televised nap on wine twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltefcc2ea1407af87f/69877f2f5f570f3e06b15453/451590080.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Justice Ginsburg Admits She Was Tipsy at State of the Union by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Feb 13, 2015 12:40 PM UTC  Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, celebrating her 20th anniversary on the bench, is photographed in the West conference room at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on Aug. 30, 2013. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, celebrating her 20th anniversary on the bench, is photographed in the West conference room at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on Aug. 30, 2013.The Washington Post/Getty Images by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Feb 13, 2015 12:40 PM UTC Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg [admitted](http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2015/02/13/newsroom-ginsburg-not-sober-at-state-of-union.cnn) in a panel discussion that a nice California wine was the reason she [nodded off](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/reliable-source/wp/2015/01/20/another-sotu-another-nap-for-justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg/) during the State of the Union address. “We sit there, stone-faced, the sober judges, but we’re not — at least I wasn’t — 100% sober, because before we went to the State of the Union we had dinner together, 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 to accompany it.” Supreme Court Justices: they’re just like us! \[[_CNN_](http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2015/02/13/newsroom-ginsburg-not-sober-at-state-of-union.cnn)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3708792/rbg-sober-sotu/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3708792/rbg-sober-sotu/"},"headline":"Justice Ginsburg Admits She Was Tipsy at State of the Union","datePublished":"2015-02-13T12:40:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T04:24:24.859Z","description":"She blamed her televised nap on wine","url":"https://time.com/3708792/rbg-sober-sotu/","keywords":["Supreme Court","Alcohol","wine","state of the union","Ruth Bader Ginsburg"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltefcc2ea1407af87f/69877f2f5f570f3e06b15453/451590080.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltefcc2ea1407af87f/69877f2f5f570f3e06b15453/451590080.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, celebrating her 20th anniversary on the bench, is photographed in the West conference room at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on Aug. 30, 2013.","caption":"Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, celebrating her 20th anniversary on the bench, is photographed in the West conference room at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on Aug. 30, 2013.","creditText":"The Washington Post/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/supreme-court/","name":"Supreme Court"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3708792/rbg-sober-sotu/","name":"Justice Ginsburg Admits She Was Tipsy at State of the Union"}}]}] ```