US Supreme Court justices play down controversy over mask use

Two US Supreme Court justices rejected press reports Wednesday about a dispute within the Supreme Court over the use of masks against the coronavirus.

“This is a mistake,” Judge Neil Gorsuch and his colleague Sonia Sotomayor said in a joint statement on Wednesday regarding an alleged request for the mandatory use of a mask in court.

National Public Radio (NPR), citing judicial sources, reported Tuesday that Chief Justice John Roberts has asked the other eight justices to wear masks during oral arguments.

However, Judge Neil Gorsuch appeared in court without a mask, while Sotomayor, who has diabetes and is seated next to him, participated in the final hearings almost from his office.

“We are surprised that it has been reported that Judge Sotomayor has asked Judge Gorsuch to wear a mask,” the two judges said in their joint statement.

“While we may disagree on the law at times, we are colleagues and good friends,” the memo said.

Not only did the NPR report actually mention that Sotomayor asked Gorsuch to wear a mask, but rather that Roberts, realizing Sotomayor might not feel safe, “somehow asked the other judges to wear masks.”

Gorsuch, one of the three justices appointed by former Republican President Doland Trump, has come under fire for being the only one for the second week in a row among nine Supreme Court justices to sit with his face exposed.

The Supreme Court permanently closed its doors in March 2020, and its judges have been holding hearings by phone from their homes for several months. In October, all of them, meeting in Washington, often without a mask, were all vaccinated before the procedure re-emerged after an omicron variant appeared.

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