Neil Gorsuch refuses to wear a mask, so Sonia Sotomayor has to telework

The justices of the Supreme Court are pretty old – the youngest justice is Amy Coney Barrett, who turns 50 in less than two weeks. The next “youngest” are Neil Gorsuch (54) and Brett Kavanaugh (56). When Trump appointed Gorsuch to Scalia’s (stolen) seat, I thought he was just a boring conservative suit, an empty robe who would vote straight-line conservative on every case. As it turns out, he’s worse than that. He’s actively a douchebag, and even the other conservative justices dislike him and find him problematic. Gorsuch’s behavior and mentality is so disgusting, he refuses to wear a mask while the Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments. He’s the only justice to refuse, and his refusal led to Sonia Sotomayor to just work from her office or her home during the pandemic:

It was pretty jarring earlier this month when the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court took the bench for the first time since the omicron surge over the holidays. All were now wearing masks. All, that is, except Justice Neil Gorsuch. What’s more, Justice Sonia Sotomayor was not there at all, choosing instead to participate through a microphone setup in her chambers.

Sotomayor has diabetes, a condition that puts her at high risk for serious illness, or even death, from COVID-19. She has been the only justice to wear a mask on the bench since last fall when, amid a marked decline in COVID-19 cases, the justices resumed in-person arguments for the first time since the onset of the pandemic.

Now, though, the situation had changed with the omicron surge, and according to court sources, Sotomayor did not feel safe in close proximity to people who were unmasked. Chief Justice John Roberts, understanding that, in some form asked the other justices to mask up.

They all did. Except Gorsuch, who, as it happens, sits next to Sotomayor on the bench. His continued refusal since then has also meant that Sotomayor has not attended the justices’ weekly conference in person, joining instead by telephone.

[From NPR]

I’ve heard that Chief Justice Roberts puts a premium on all of the justices getting along and respecting one another even if they disagree on cases, so it’s not a surprise that Roberts tried to do a mask mandate within SCOTUS to be respectful of Sotomayor’s very real health concerns. Can you even imagine Chief Justice Roberts going to his conservative bro Neil Gorsuch and being like “dude, you need to go back to wearing a mask” and Gorsuch was like “NOPE!” And again, Gorsuch is the one who should have to telework, not Sotomayor. Apparently, the other justices were fine with going back to masks – bizarrely, even Coney Barrett, Thomas and Alito? – and it was just Gorsuch being a dick. So let eight justices hear oral arguments while wearing masks, and Gorsuch should work from his office. This is gross.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar.