Now whilst the idea of 90-year old justices doing setenta or enchufla may bring a smile to your lips, a new book about Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Breaking In: The Rise of Sonia Sotomayor and the Politics of Justice, discusses the serious side to her shaking up the bench.

The salsa link, by the way, refers to a gala evening where Justice Sotomayor decided that the party “lacked a certain something”, cued salsa music from her clerks, and proceeded to get the other justices to dance with her one by one. Some, it seems, were more willing that others. 😉

Oh yes, and the language connection is that Justice Sonia Sotomayor is said to be the first “Hispanic” US Supreme Court judge. There is, however, argument about whether this term refers to “coming from a Spanish-speaking country” (in her case a Puerto Rican family), or whether it covers “of Portuguese ancestry”, in which case she was preceded by Justice Cardozo in the early 20th century.

To read an extract from the book, see here.