Sonia Sotomayor will keep working remotely instead of showing in person at the U.S. Supreme Court because her fellow Justice Neil Gorsuch will not use a mask while in court, according to a new report by NPR.
The news outlet reported Tuesday that the supreme court justices were acting like a “dysfunctional family”:
“It was pretty alarming earlier this month when the SCOTUS justices took the bench for the initial time since the omicron surge during the holidays. All were using masks. All except one, Justice Neil Gorsuch. Also, Justice Sonia Sotomayor was not in attendance, choosing instead to work through a microphone setup.”
“Justice Sotomayor has diabetes, an illness that makes her at higher risk for severe illness, or maybe even death, from covid. She was the only SCOTUS justice to use a mask since last fall when, during a marked decline in coronavirus cases, the justices continued in-person meetings for the first time since the start of the covid pandemic.”
“Now, though, things have changed with the omicron surge, and as reported by court sources, Sotomayor does not feel safe near people who are unmasked. Chief Justice John Roberts, understanding this, in some form asked the other justices to use a mask.”
“They all did. Except Justice Gorsuch, who, as it happens, sits close to Sotomayor on the Judge’s bench. His has continued to refuse a mask and that has meant that Sotomayor has not come in person to the justices’ weekly conference, joining by telephone instead.”
Sotomayor seems to think some alarmist stories about the covid pandemic are true, claiming incorrectly during oral arguments about the Joe Biden administration’s vaccine mandate on Jan. 7 that 100,000 American kids were hospitalized with coronavirus.
Politico reported falsely that Justice Sotomayor later went to dinner without using a mask; it confused the justice with the wife of Democrat Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (NY).
This comes at a time when Americans are growing angrier and more restless about Democrats never-ending power tactics as it relates to covid-19 and mask wearing. It seems that the paranoia reaches all the way to the Supreme Court.