Justice Sotomayor will not attend oral arguments in-person due to Justice Gorsuch’s refusal to wear a mask: report

Original story follows:

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor will only attend oral arguments remotely this week, due to her type-one diabetes, and Justice Neil Gorsuch's refusal to wear a mask.

NPR reports that members of the Supreme Court all masked up throughout December, except for Gorsuch, with Sotomayor not being present at all, "choosing instead to participate through a microphone setup in her chambers."

According to Healthline, Justice Sotomayor was diagnosed with type-one diabetes at age 7.

Sotomayor is now 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," NPR reports.

Sotomayor, 67, "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," NPR reported.