Thursday, January 20, 2022

A) Gotta Make The Court Look Like One Big Happy Family

First, context: B) This is not a hill Sotomayor (metaphorically) wants to die on.

C) Gorsuch still looks like an ass. Whether or not Roberts "ordered" it (and who is he to do so, frankly? First among equals, and he decides who writes opinions, but wearing masks on the bench?), is Gorsuch not adult enough to be sensitive to Sotomayor's risk, especially as he sits right next to her and knows why she's not attending hearings in person?

D) It is also possible Sotomayor doesn't want to take the risk, regardless (Masks are hardly foolproof). But the "warm colleagues and friends" language sounds like something is being frantically covered up.


Three Supreme Court justices issued statements Wednesday addressing an NPR story about relations among the justices. On Tuesday, NPR reported that Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a longtime diabetic, had indicated to Chief Justice John Roberts that because of the omicron surge, she did not feel safe being in a room with people who are unmasked, and that the chief justice "in some form asked the other justices to mask up."

 On Wednesday, Sotomayor and Gorsuch issued a statement saying that she did not ask him to wear a mask. NPR's report did not say that she did. Then, the chief justice issued a statement saying he "did not request Justice Gorsuch or any other justice to wear a mask on the bench." The NPR report said the chief justice's ask to the justices had come "in some form."

 NPR stands by its reporting.
The responses coming out of the Court all had a certain “Oh, shit, that didn’t do it!” quality. The responses all denied something the report didn’t say. Classic non-denial denials. And pretty clumsy ones.

F)
Even lawyers good at parsing statements can be bad at parsing PR.

1 comment:

  1. I have been critical of Nina Totenberg for her reporting too often putting the court in too rosy a light but she is a careful reporter. I think her defense of what she said in light of what Sotomayor and Roberts said is valid. Goresuch is an asshole for not going out of his way to protect her health. At the very least he's no gentleman even to someone like her, we know he's a total asshole to workers and others with no power, Sotomayor and Kagan are the only two on that court who haven't been at some point, Breyer at times being rather callous in regard to that, as well.

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