After an NPR report implied the two Supreme Court justices were at odds about wearing face masks, they said in a joint statement this is false.
In a statement released Wednesday, U.S. Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Neil Gorsuch denied a report that implied the two were in a disagreement over wearing masks in court. Sotomayor lives with type 1 diabetes. Because of this, she has been more cautious against COVID-19 than the other justices and has attended some meetings remotely, The Washington Post reported. A Tuesday NPR article written by Nina Totenberg said “court sources” mentioned that Sotomayor did not feel safe around unmasked people, and in response, Chief Justice John Roberts “in some form asked the other justices to mask up.” Totenberg wrote that all except Gorsuch did, causing Sotomayor to refrain from attending the court’s weekly conference in person. The two justices said in a joint statement the reporting about their alleged disagreement “surprised us.
