On Tuesday, NPR published a story claiming that Neil Gorsuch refused to honor the request of liberal justice Sonia Sotomayor that he wear a mask during the Supreme Court hearing.
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.
This story made the rounds in the news circuit, causing the "tRuSt tHe ScIeNcE" liberals' heads to explode. How could the conservative justice not honor the request of Sotomayor whose fears of Covid are not at all exaggerated or overstated?
The problem with this?
Well, it's all fake news.
Yes, that's right. Our venerated taxpayer-funded National Public Radio published complete fake news.
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I guess the "court sources" in this case were just making stuff up. And NPR was just going to run with it.
Sotomayor and Gorsuch came out together to deny that this ever happened.
It's all complete bunk.
I guess we shouldn't be surprised at this point.
The USAToday also picked up this fake news story. And their take on it may be even more ridiculous than NPR making up the story.
Sotomayor's concerns over the spread of COVID in the courtroom aren't unfounded. Last Tuesday, Associate Justice Stephen Breyer, the oldest member of the court, also participated in oral arguments remotely after initially testing positive for COVID-19. He later took more tests, including a PCR test, that showed he was negative.
USA Today shared this fake news, and they were willing to justify Sotomayor's asking Gorsuch to wear a mask by appealing to the fact that another justice had a false positive on a Covid test.
This world is insane.
It just goes to show you how easily fake news can spread when it is promulgated by "trusted" news sources.
