Diabetic liberal Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch jointly denied on Wednesday that Sotomayor had asked Gorsuch to put a mask on.
On Tuesday it was reported that Gorsuch was refusing to wear a mask despite pleas from Chief Justice John Roberts on behalf of Sotomayor, who did not feel comfortable around anyone unmasked and thus was working virtually.
‘Reporting that Justice Sotomayor asked Justice Gorsuch to wear a mask surprised us. It is false,’ the pair of justices said in a statement. ‘While we sometimes disagree about the law, we are warm colleagues and friends.’
The statement did not address claims that Sotomayor was attending hearings from home due to Gorsuch’s refusal to mask. It also did not address the claim that Roberts was the one who asked Gorsuch to mask up.
Justices are known to place great importance on presenting a civil and non-partisan front to the public. Mask-wearing has become a political landmine in the U.S.
Last fall, amid a decline in Covid-19 cases, the court resumed in-person arguments for the first time, and none chose to wear a mask except Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who is 67 and has diabetes.
But earlier this month when the court returned to the bench following the Omicron surge over the holidays, Sotomayor made it clear she did not feel safe in close proximity with the others unless they were masked, according to NPR.
Roberts then reportedly asked the other justices to mask up so that Sotomayor could return, but Gorsuch, who sits directly next to her, remained obstinate. Sotomayor has thus continued to join court business by phone and has not stepped back into the court.
Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch has reportedly refused to wear a mask in court despite pleas from Chief Justice John Roberts
A masked-up Justice Sonya Sotomayor is pictured above
But earlier this month when the court returned to the bench following the Omicron surge over the holidays, Sotomayor made it clear she did not feel safe in close proximity with the others unless they were masked
The rules are far more strict for those in the chamber who don’t rank as justices. Reporters and lawyers are required to wear N95 masks and test negative for Covid-19.
Mike Davis, Gorsuch’s former law clerk, responded to the report on Twitter: ‘Every justice is vaccinated and boosted. Don’t vaccines work? We know cloth masks don’t.’
Gorsuch, appointed by President Trump, also raised questions about vaccine mandates during oral arguments. The high court recently struck down President Biden’s vaccine-or-test requirement for private employers, but left in place the mandate for workers in healthcare settings that receive federal funding.
‘Could [the government] also implement regulations about exercise regimes, sleep habits, medicines and supplements that must be ingested by hospital employees in the name of health and safety?’ he questioned.
In a dissent of the decision to uphold the healthcare worker mandate, Gorsuch, along with Amy Coney Barrett and Clarence Thomas, described the vaccination requirement for healthcare workers as forcing them to ‘undergo a medical procedure they do not want and cannot undo.’
The court on Tuesday was hearing arguments over artwork stolen by the Nazis from a Jewish family fleeing Germany.
It also heard arguments on a case centering on Boston’s denial of a conservative group’s bid to fly a flag bearing a cross outside City Hall.
Last fall, amid a decline in Covid-19 cases, the court resumed in-person arguments for the first time, and none chose to wear a mask except Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who is 67 and has diabetes, as is shown in this photo from Nov. 1
Amid the Omicron surge, Roberts reportedly asked the other justices to mask up so that Sotomayor could return, but Gorsuch, who sits directly next to her, remained obstinate. Sotomayor’s chair remains empty in the sketch above from Jan. 7
Earlier this month, Sotomayor incorrectly claimed during a hearing on President Biden’s vaccine mandate that 100,000 children in the U.S. with Covid-19 are in ‘serious condition.’
The justice, appointed by former President Obama, also claimed that Omicron is ‘just as deadly’ as the Delta variant for the unvaccinated.
Studies have shown the Omicron variant to be more infectious but less virulent than past strains of Covid-19.
‘Omicron is as deadly as delta and causes as much serious disease in the unvaccinated as delta did,’ she said. ‘The numbers—look at the hospitalization rates going up. We have more infected people today than we did a year ago in January. We have hospitals that are almost at full capacity with people severely ill on ventilators. We have over 100,000 children, which we’ve never had before, in serious condition, and many on ventilators.’
If by ‘serious condition’ the justice means hospitalized, those numbers are inaccurate.
The seven-day average of Covid patients under 18 who were hospitalized on the day of Sotomayor’s remarks was 797.
Since August of 2020, there have not even been 100,000 Covid-19 hospitalizations among children.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 82,843 children have been hospitalized during that time period.
About 600 Americans under the age of 18 have died of Covid-19 over the course of the pandemic.
The U.S. recorded 721,651 new cases on Monday, a steep fall from the 1.364 million cases reported last Monday. America’s new daily case average has also dropped 10 percent over the past seven days, from 766,939 to 684,457.
Recent trends in case growth, combined with the more mild nature of the Omicron variant compared to its predecessors, has many hopeful that Covid will soon become endemic. If it reaches endemic stage, humans will be able to live normal lives with controlled circulation of the virus – similar to the flu.
Deaths are only up 7% this week, down from the 20% increase recorded last Monday.’
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow lambasted Gorsuch for ‘keeping [Sotomayor] from being able to come to work.
‘It’s folly to try to get inside anyone else’s head, I know, but I just can’t shake this,’ Maddow tweeted Tuesday, adding, ‘Does Justice Gorsuch revel in everyone now knowing that he’s keeping her from being able to come to work? Or is he embarrassed? I mean, how do you live with yourself?’
