Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch again doesn’t wear mask on bench, Sotomayor and Breyer log in remotely

In contrast to Gorsuch, reporters and lawyers who attend high court hearings must wear at least N95 masks, not less protective cloth masks.

The Washington Post deputy editorial page editor Ruth Marcus criticized Gorsuch in a column Friday, writing that “Like his colleagues, he had a choice about whether to wear a mask.”

“Unlike them, he chose poorly,” Marcus wrote.

During Tuesday’s session, the other six justices besides Gorsuch, including Chief Justice John Roberts, kept their masks on, only removing them at times to sip water or sometimes while asking questions.

The Supreme Court’s media affairs office did not immediately respond to a query from CNBC about Gorsuch.

The high court only in October began hearing arguments in person after more than a yearlong span in which the justices conducted proceedings over the phone because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Supreme Court building remains closed to the public.

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser in late December reinstated a mandate requiring that masks be worn in public indoor spaces, because of the rise locally in Covid cases.

But the federal government sets its own rules for federal buildings, and the Supreme Court, as a separate branch of the government, determines its own guidelines.

On Dec. 1, when the omicron variant first was detected in the United States, there were 131 newly reported cases of Covid in Washington, with 97 people hospitalized with the virus. On Monday, there were 2,365 new cases of Covid reported in the district, with 901 people hospitalized.

– Additional reporting by CNBC’s Sevanny Campos

Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/11/supreme-court-justice-neil-gorsuch-has-no-mask-despite-covid-spike.html