Where was Justice Neil Gorsuch's mask?

[Nevilledog]

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Tweet text:

Richard Signorelli
@richsignorelli
Remember this guy; he took Garland's seat; bc he wouldn't wear a mask, Justice Sotomayor, who has diabetes & normally sits next to him, had to participate remotely. I don't have to know anything more about this man's character.

Opinion | Where was Justice Neil Gorsuch’s mask?
If you think this sounds like a trivial question, I dissent.
washingtonpost.com
11:14 AM · Jan 8, 2022

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/01/07/where-was-justice-neil-gorsuchs-mask/

No paywall
https://archive.fo/Qz00A

Where was Justice Neil M. Gorsuch’s mask? If you think this sounds like a trivial question, I dissent. I believe it goes to the heart of our fraying social fabric.

When the Supreme Court justices took their seats Friday morning to hear oral arguments in two cases challenging the Biden administration’s covid rules, seven of the justices wore masks — a change in their previous behavior prompted, no doubt, by the emergence of an new infectious strain.

One justice, Sonia Sotomayor, who had previously been the only justice to wear a mask on the bench, participated remotely from her chambers. Sotomayor has diabetes, which is a risk factor for more severe illness with covid. She also is, or would have been, Gorsuch’s seat mate for the nearly four-hour-long argument session.

The court, having resumed in-person arguments, retains strict limits on who can attend and strict rules for those allowed inside the chamber. Reporters and lawyers must wear masks — N95 masks, not the less-effective cloth variety — and test negative for covid. In fact, two of the lawyers who argued against the Biden administration’s vaccine mandates had to do so remotely after testing positive. And instead of being crammed cheek by jowl in the press section, reporters, along with the justices’ law clerks, are spaced throughout the otherwise-empty chamber.

*snip*

[Polybius]

1. Even Thomas and Alito had their masks on

[madaboutharry]

3. Gorsuch is privileged and entitled, it oozes out of his pores.

He is a character out of a Hemingway novel.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

4. Let's go Darwin

[Calculating]

5. He's probably vaccinated

Darwin won't be getting him

[Ms. Toad]

6. So was Sotomayor the other who was maskless?

Just an assumption, based on the fact that she attended remotely. One would think that an article slamming one of two justices not wearing a mask would at least identify the other . . .

[Nevilledog]

7. The court picture only shows Gorsuch as the only present and unmasked.

I guess they assumed people would understand the remotely appearing Justice would not be masked.

[Ms. Toad]

8. There wasn't a sketch of the justices accompanying the article linked to -

and I read the article a couple of times and then scrolled through a lot of the comments to see who the other unmasked justice was.

It would have been nice to say something like Gorsuch was the only justice of the 8 present in the courtroom to be unmasked (rather than saying 7 were masked). There have been times during the pandemic when I have participated remotely wearing a mask, so it's not a foregone conclusion that remote = maskless (especially since she might have had clerks in her chambers during the arguments).