No country takes its judiciary as seriously as the US. Given its constitutional standing as the third, and equal, arm of government, this is appropriate, but it is still unusual. Ask any informed European or Asian to name a national high court judge and they would be pushed to identify anybody. Italians and Spaniards might, but only for particular Mafia and war crimes reasons.

Thus it figures that, but for the death of Michael Jackson, Sonia Sotomayor, President Barack Obama’s first nominee to the Supreme Court, would have received more ink space and air time in the last two months than any other American, her sponsor and Sarah Palin included.