LIBERTARIAN DEMS

Progressive Dems Are Handing Trump a Weapon Against Dissent With Mask Bans

The push to ban masking in public is a threat to free speech and disability rights.

By Mike Ludwig , TruthoutPublishedDecember 2, 2024

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul seen at the governor's office announcing the lifting of the indoor mask mandate for businesses effective February 10, 2022.

Lev Radin / Pacific Press / LightRocket via Getty Images

Abroad coalition of civil liberties and activist organizations is calling on lawmakers across the U.S. to oppose bans on wearing masks in public before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.

Dozens of mask bans, which are typically presented as “anti-crime” bills, have been proposed at the local, state and federal levels in what critics say is a direct response to protests against the mass killing and displacement of Palestinians by Israel. Police in some states are reviving once-defunct mask bans dating back to the 19th and early 20th centuries, when masked members of the Ku Klux Klan violently terrorized Black people and immigrants.

During the height of the COVID pandemic, politicians put out statements to ensure the public that archaic anti-mask laws still on the books in 16 states would not be enforced. Now, members of both parties are reversing course after months of mass protests in solidarity with Palestine that pro-Israel pundits conflate with violence and mischaracterize as antisemitism, despite the fact that pro-peace Jewish groups are integral to the movement.

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For example, New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul recently expressed support for proposals to criminalize mask-wearing in public for reasons besides health protection. Similar proposals to restrict or ban masks have received bipartisan support in North Carolina, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Louisville, and beyond.

“It’s no surprise that fascists and science-deniers want to ban masks from protests. But it’s alarming that supposedly progressive lawmakers are helping them do it,” said Evan Greer, director of the digital rights group Fight for the Future, in a statement.

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Greer said bans on masking in public have massive implications for social movements and personal autonomy. Masking is now the norm at many political protests — as well as at abortion and reproductive health clinics — to protect against both COVID and doxxing by far right extremists who seek to attack the privacy of people they disagree with and harass them online.

“There are many reasons to cover your face at a protest or in public, from defending yourself from harassment and doxxing to protecting your community from COVID during an ongoing public health crisis,” Greer said.

For people living with disabilities or compromised immune systems, masking to prevent illness is necessary for participating in public forums in the first place. Face masks also defend against rapidly advancing digital surveillance and facial recognition technology, which is providing both law enforcement and internet trolls with new tools to target individuals as Trump pledges to take “retribution” against Democrats and leftists.

While new and proposed masking laws typically contain exceptions for masks worn for religious or health reasons, it’s virtually impossible for police to tell the difference at a large event without confronting people directly. Everyone has a health reason to mask in public with COVID still floating around, and that ambiguity creates space for “discretionary and selective enforcement,” according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

A newly instated mask ban on Long Island, New York, has already been weaponized against a peaceful demonstrator wearing a keffiyeh, the iconic scarf symbolizing solidarity with Palestine. A video shows activist Xavier Roa being handcuffed with a keffiyeh around his neck during a protest in September outside a synagogue that was reportedly promoting the sale of stolen Palestinian land to buyers in the United States.

Roa faced up to a year in jail or a $1,000 fine under a law approved by Nassau County Republicans one month earlier in response to anti-genocide protests. The law has exceptions for masking in public for health or religious purposes, but police said Roa was concealing his identity and claimed to be wearing the keffiyeh in solidarity with Palestine, so they arrested him. Mayor Adams has pushed for a similar ban in New York City.

In an early test of their ability to enforce anti-mask laws against protesters, prosecutors dropped the charges against Roa on November 22 after determining that they did not have enough evidence to convince a jury. The Nassau County mask ban also faces lawsuits filed by disabled residents who wear masks for health protection.

However, even if violations of anti-mask laws may be difficult to prove in court, civil rights groups argue the laws provide police with enormous power to harass and arrest protesters as well as people who are disabled, immunocompromised, or suffering from Long COVID.

“Like other anti-protest laws, these draconian measures will be selectively enforced, and used as an excuse by law enforcement to crack down on marginalized communities and protesters who they don’t like,” Greer said.

In an open letter to policymakers, more than 40 organizations fighting for COVID justice, reproductive rights, organized labor and civil liberties, argues that criminalizing masking is a “serious threat” to public health, privacy and free speech, making “everyone less safe” while putting marginalized and disabled people already targeted by police at further risk.

“As we continue to see sustained death and disablement due to COVID and Long COVID, the public health and disability justice implications of criminalizing mask-wearing are disastrous alone,” the letter states. “But to make matters worse, these bans violate our most fundamental civil liberties.”

The letter points to North Carolina, where people who wear masks for health reasons reported an escalation in harassment as Republicans overrode the Democratic governor’s veto and put a harsh mask ban into effect. In June, a woman being treated for cancer was accosted and coughed on for wearing a mask.

The North Carolina law allows police and property or business owners to demand that people unmask to be identified, which the groups argue could expose people not just to insults but also facial recognition software and “bad actors and their cameras.”

Due to right-wing attacks on abortion rights and gender-affirming care, people may also choose to wear masks to avoid harassment and doxing when accessing reproductive health care, according to Jenna Sherman, a campaign director at the gender justice group UltraViolet.

“Particularly in an era of increased surveillance and facial recognition, people are living in fear of being targeted for what should be routine, protected parts of our lives, like accessing reproductive healthcare,” Sherman recently wrote. “Everyone must have the right to choose to wear a mask regardless of whether it’s to protect their health or safeguard their privacy.”

Sean O’Brien, founder of the Yale Privacy Lab, said masks provide people with “vital protection” not only from harassment but the “pervasive and growing tendrils of surveillance in our society.”

“Mask bans create a chilling effect on speech and allow for biased and predictive policing, making it possible for facial recognition technology to follow individuals from protests and rallies all the way to their homes,” O’Brien wrote in a statement.

This article is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), and you are free to share and republish under the terms of the license.

Mike Ludwig is a staff reporter at Truthout based in New Orleans. He is also the writer and host of “Climate Front Lines,” a podcast about the people, places and ecosystems on the front lines of the climate crisis. Follow him on Twitter: @ludwig_mike.