Mask dispute between judges
Trump’s favorite divided the Supreme Court

1/19/2022 3:34 am

Pose in US Supreme Court: Supreme Court chief asks his colleagues to wear masks in courtroom. All judges follow the call – except one. Trump-nominee Neil Gorsuch appears at a hearing as the only person without a face mask.

The US Chief Justice is reportedly arguing over wearing a mask in the courtroom. National Public Radio (NPR) reported on Tuesday, citing court sources, that Supreme Court chief John Roberts had asked his peers to wear masks due to the coronavirus pandemic. Conservative Judge Neil Gorsuch rejected it.

NPR reported that Judge Sonia Sotomayor, who has diabetes, “doesn’t feel safe around people without masks.” So Roberts asked his colleagues to take this into account, and with the exception of Gorsuch, all other judges followed suit at the most recent hearing last Tuesday. Gorsuch, 54, was nominated for the position by former Republican President Donald Trump.

Sotomayor, 67, who sits next to Gorsuch on the bench, participated in the most recent court hearing online from her office. NPR reported that she also attended weekly conventions of judges, not in person but over the phone.

Wearing a mask, like vaccination, has become a political issue in the United States. Gorsuch was one of six conservative Supreme Court justices who last week overturned Democrat Joe Biden’s government’s proposed vaccination requirement for large corporations. On the other hand, Sotomayor and two other liberal judges voted for mandatory vaccination and testing.

Following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States in March 2020, the Supreme Court began its hearings over the phone. In October, the judges, now all vaccinated and promoted, resumed in-person hearings.