Last week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments concerning the constitutionality of President Biden's private employer Covid-19 vaccine mandate. While liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor made headlines for a number of false statements regarding the vaccines, the virus's effect on children, and Covid-19 in general, she wasn't alone. As Katie detailed, other liberal justices got their Covid-19 and vaccine information wrong as well.
Meanwhile, left-leaning outlets jumped on comments Justice Neil Gorsuch allegedly made, according to the Supreme Court's transcript. But anyone who bothered to confirm by listening to the recording could have easily picked up on the error.
On Monday, the Supreme Court released a revised transcript that corrected the quote from Gorsuch about annual flu deaths. Previously, it stated he claimed "hundreds of thousands of people every year" die from the flu. In reality, he said the flu kills "hundreds, thousands of people every year."
Hey geniuses. You are falsely smearing Justice Gorsuch for a TRANSCRIPTION ERROR.
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) January 8, 2022
Listen carefully: "Flu kills, I believe, hundreds, thousands of people every year."
Correct and retract your false stories.
At 1:50:00 https://t.co/Pm3wZuB8kz pic.twitter.com/WfD21LrLWH
"We have vaccines against that — that, but the federal government through OSHA, so far as I know, and you can correct me, does not mandate every worker in the country to receive such a vaccine," Gorsuch said. "We have flu vaccines. The flu kills, I believe, hundreds, thousands of people every year. OSHA has never purported to regulate on that basis."
Kudos to Glenn for getting this right!https://t.co/qAkRgT7dFJ
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) January 8, 2022
Not expecting a mea culpa from the "everyone I disagree with is an anti-science nut job" crowd, but it turns out that Gorsuch was *not* wrong, and Sotomayor was *wildly* wrong on Covid numbers.
— Leighton Woodhouse (@lwoodhouse) January 9, 2022
At least some reporters were willing to correct their error.
2/ I also want to apologize publicly to Justice Gorsuch for inaccurately transcribing his remarks (as did the official SCOTUS stenographer, as well as journalists at The Guardian and The Nation. pic.twitter.com/3ZFOgkPr9s
— Jason Lemon (@JasonLemon) January 10, 2022