Important Editor’s Note: This story was written based on information from an NPR report that has been disputed as false. One day after the report was published, Supreme Court justices Neil Gorsuch and Sonia Sotomayor issued a joint statement refuting the claims as “false.” BizPac Review looks forward to finding out more information on the discrepancy between the Justices’ statement and the initial reporting by the left-leaning National Public Radio.
Believing that masks do not provide the protection that people worldwide have been told to accept that they provide, Justice Neil Gorsuch is standing firm on his intent to remain mask-less in court, even when allegedly requested to do so by Chief Justice John Roberts.
Roberts’ reported request came in response to Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s refusal to be around un-masked individuals due to her compromised health situation. Justice Gorsuch sits next to Justice Sotomayor on the bench, NPR reported.
“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,” the outlet reported.
But when the Supreme Court went back into session after the holidays, Roberts reportedly asked his colleagues to wear masks for Sotomayor’s sake. In light of Gorsuch’s refusal to do so, Sotomayor has been working remotely from her chambers, according to NPR.
This latest report on the Supreme Court comes shortly after two vaccine mandate rulings were handed down by the Justices. The High Court ruled against a call from the Biden administration for a vaccine-or-test mandate among businesses but upheld a vaccine mandate for health care workers in facilities that receive Medicaid or Medicare funding.
Justice Sotomayor supported both mandates. In doing so, she exposed her limited knowledge — or possibly her partisan views — when she erred in her facts surrounding recent coronavirus statistics. She contributed, instead, to the fearmongering over Omicron when she said, “We have over 100,000 children, which we’ve never had before, in serious condition, and many on ventilators.”
Supreme misinformation! Liberal SCOTUS justices pummeled over false vaccine mandate statements https://t.co/xjMIQcXbA3
— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) January 8, 2022
Even CNN was forced to call her out: “Sotomayor’s claim about children wasn’t even close to accurate. According to federal data at the time Sotomayor spoke, fewer than 5,000 people under the age of 18 were hospitalized in the US with confirmed or suspected cases of Covid-19; the reported number of child hospitalizations was 4,464 on Thursday, the day before the hearing, and was still under 5,000 as of Monday afternoon.”
Adding to the COVID noise during the vaccine mandate deliberations was another liberal on the Court, Justice Stephen Breyer, who claimed that there had been “750 million new cases yesterday or close to that.”
CNN fact-checked that, too, saying, “Breyer was way off.” They asserted that he had simply made a slip of the tongue, however, since he had used the number “750,000” and “three-quarters of a million” earlier in the day; those numbers were much closer to being accurate.
Information on the usefulness of masks has changed since Spring 2020. Back in December, CNN analyst Dr. Leana Wen said out loud what many have all known — or at least suspected — for a long time now: “Don’t wear a cloth mask,” she said. “Cloth masks are little more than facial decorations. There’s no place for them in light of Omicron.”
It wasn’t long before she realized the catastrophic effect her words were having for the control-happy Left, and she took to Twitter to “clarify” her words:
My point isn’t that we don’t need masks, but rather that we should require masks that are most effective to prevent disease transmission. Everyone, including children, should be wearing at least a 3-ply surgical mask when indoors & around others of unknown vaccination status. https://t.co/RXe6efAwsg
— Leana Wen, M.D. (@DrLeanaWen) December 21, 2021
So she recommends the 3-ply masks. Those are the blue ones (typically) that you wear once and then throw away. They are also the ones that say, right on the box, “When properly worn, it reduces potential contact by the wearer to fluids, but it does not eliminate the risk of contracting any disease or infection.”
What about N95 masks? According to the description of one 3M N95 mask for sale: “This respirator is designed for use for particles such as those from grinding, sanding, sweeping, sawing, bagging, or other dusty operations. This respirator can also help reduce inhalation exposures to certain airborne biological particles (examples: mold, Bacillus anthracis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis), but cannot eliminate the risk of contracting infection, illness, or disease.”
With the NPR report on the alleged SCOTUS goings-on, Gorsuch seems to be unwilling to participate in the mask theater anymore. Certainly, he recognizes that Sotomayor has an underlying condition that could make getting sick more dangerous; does that stop if COVID goes away? Are there no other illnesses that threaten her?
Thankfully, technology has provided more ways than ever before for people who have challenging immune systems to continue to participate in society through remote means; everyone should be thankful that work can still get done and relationships can stay intact.
While many in the Twitterverse predictably skewered Gorsuch for his stance, a few saw it from his perspective:
Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch refusing to wear a mask is what I’d call… FREEDOM!
— Gunther Eagleman L.E.O. Retired (@GuntherEagleman) January 18, 2022
I do believe that’s his right as an American! Fully vaccinated and all.
— Jen (@psychologygirl7) January 18, 2022
She wasn’t forced. She made a decision that she felt was best for her health. How did you miss that part? She could have worn an N95, gotten vaccinated/boosted, exercise, diet, etc, but she cannot legally compel others to cater to her needs. That is the point of his behavior
— Jacob (@Ponce_29) January 18, 2022
If masks worked we wouldn’t be entering our 3rd year of Covid.
— PolitiKosta (@Denverkosta) January 18, 2022
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