Supreme Court Justices.
According to a new report, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch has refused to wear a mask during in-person proceedings despite a request from Chief Justice John Roberts for all members of the high court to accommodate Justice Sonia Sotomayor's concerns about Covid-19.
According to a veteran NPR Supreme Court reporter, the continued defiance of Gorsuch has led to the use of remote arguments for the justice who has diabetes and is at a higher risk of serious illness from Covid.
When the justices returned to the courtroom to hear arguments in person, they were the only ones to wear masks. With the surge of the highly transmissible omicron variant in the winter, Sotomayor felt unsafe sitting next to people.
Roberts asked the other justices to wear masks. One of the justices nominated by Donald Trump refused.
CNBC asked the court to comment on the NPR report. The justices have received boosters for Covid.
There are two people on the bench. He refused to wear a mask during the justices' weekly conferences, leading to the 67-year-old Sotomayor to attend by telephone.
Last week, the only justice in the courtroom not to wear a mask was Justice Neil Gorsuch, while Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Sotomayor were not present. The results of a Covid test that a spokesman said was a false positive caused the oldest member of the court to stay out of the courtroom.
On Tuesday morning, when the court was set to hear oral arguments in two cases, one of the three liberals on the nine-seat bench, was not present.
The first case was about a dispute over a flag that was to be flown outside City Hall.
The second case involved a decades-old court battle being waged by the family of a Holocaust survivor trying to recover a painting by impressionist master Camille Pissarro that was stolen by the Nazis.
The full report can be found on NPR.
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