In Rare Statement, Justices Sotomayor & Gorsuch Deny Report of Tension Over Masking

Alex Wong/Getty The U.S. Supreme Court

In a rare public comment Wednesday, Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Neil Gorsuch issued a joint statement pushing back on a new report of tension in their relationship — and denying that Sotomayor had asked Gorsuch to wear a face mask.

The brief statement came one day after a story published by longtime NPR court reporter Nina Totenberg, who wrote that, according to sources, Sotomayor chose not to participate in person in a recent court meeting because Gorsuch refused a request to wear a face mask.

Sotomayor, 67, was the only justice to wear a mask last October, when the justices returned to the bench for the first time in 18 months amid the pandemic.

But the face coverings have become more widely adopted: As NPR notes, every justice except Gorsuch, 54, wore one while on the bench earlier this month, though Sotomayor attended remotely.

Per Totenberg's sources, Sotomayor did not want to be in proximity to Gorsuch unmasked, either during arguments or in the judges' conferences.

But the joint statement Wednesday, which was sent to PEOPLE by the court, pushed back on the dispute described by NPR.

"Reporting that Justice Sotomayor asked Justice Gorsuch to wear a mask surprised us," Gorsuch and Sotomayor said. "It is false. While we may sometimes disagree about the law, we are warm colleagues and friends."

In a separate statement, Chief Justice John Roberts also said: "I did not request Justice Gorsuch or any other justice to wear a mask on the bench."

The NPR report didn't specify that Sotomayor was the one who sought for Gorsuch to wear a mask; instead, Totenberg wrote that Chief Justice John Roberts asked all the justices do so.

She later clarified that he had "suggested" this and noted that she wasn't sure how he had communicated this to the other judges.

The justices' statement did not elaborate on whether Gorsuch had — or would — wear a mask in meetings or during arguments moving forward.

Totenberg, for her part, told The Daily Beast: "I am sticking by my reporting."

RELATED: Justice Sonia Sotomayor Is Only Member of Supreme Court to Wear Mask as In-Person Arguments Resume

Sotomayor has diabetes, putting her at high risk for serious illness from COVID-19. But as she told PEOPLE in a recent interview, she wears a face mask not just for her own personal health, but for the greater good.

"I believe in all of us taking good care of ourselves, and it takes active consciousness to do that. You know, people talk about this as being a product of my diabetes or because of my diabetes," Sotomayor said.

Sotomayor continued to PEOPLE: "It's a part of me that has grown up understanding that we have affirmative obligations to take care of ourselves as human beings. Good health doesn't just happen. It's a conscious choice."

Erin Schaff-Pool/Getty Supreme Court justices

The joint statement from Gorsuch and Sotomayor on Wednesday did not expand on other details in the NPR story, which further reported that Gorsuch has been a thorn in the side of even some of his conservative colleagues since taking the bench.

Totenberg described Gorsuch's demeanor at his first sitting on the court, in 2017, in which he reportedly suggested that a complex case was instead simple.

Conservative Justice Samuel Alito, meanwhile, offered that the case was "unbelievably complicated."

Neither Sotomayor nor any other justices have recently addressed how they get along with their colleagues though, according to Totenberg, the divide is especially stark considering the conservative supermajority.

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While the justices' ideologies do not neatly fit into Democratic and Republican labels, six of the nine current Supreme Court justices are thought to be conservative-leaning or were backed by Republican presidents. Three of them were appointed by former President Donald Trump.

Despite this, the court and Chief Justice Roberts especially have taken pains to underscore where there is common ground among the group and stress that they are not simply pitted against each other by politics.

For example, the vast majority of the court's recent opinions have been unanimous or almost unanimous.

But some of the most high-profile cases taken up by the court illustrate where there are still far-reaching disagreements.

Just last week, the conservative majority voted to block a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for large employers in the U.S. even as liberal-leaning Justice Stephen Breyer called the challengers' argument "unbelievable."

Speaking to PEOPLE about her new book, Just Help, Sotomayor offered a window into the environment at the Supreme Court recently. Saying she'd rather "stay away from more recent examples" of acts of kindness involving her fellow justices, she instead offered up an example via the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

"When Justice Ginsburg's husband was ill, one of my colleagues knew that her husband was the cook in the family," Sotomayor said. "She's never been a very good cook, and he was afraid she wasn't eating and had food delivered to her every night."

* With reporting by SANDRA SOBIERAJ WESTFALL