Suburban New York county bans wearing masks to conceal identity

MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) — Lawmakers in a suburban New York county have approved a bill that would ban the wearing of face masks in public places except for people who cover their faces for health, religious or cultural reasons.

Supporters of the bill say the law, approved Monday by the Republican-controlled Nassau County Legislature on Long Island, would prevent violent protesters from hiding their identities.

Lawmaker Howard Kopel said the bill was introduced in response to “anti-Semitic incidents, often perpetrated by individuals wearing masks” since the start of Israel’s latest war with Hamas on Oct. 7.

All 12 Republicans in the legislature voted for the initiative, while seven Democrats abstained.

County lawmakers took action after Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in June that I am considering banning wearing masks on the New York subway. No specific plan has been announced to implement such a ban, which, like the measure in Nassau, was proposed in response to an increase in the number of protesters wearing masks.

The New York Civil Liberties Union has criticized Nassau’s mask ban as a violation of free speech rights.

“Masks protect those expressing unpopular political views,” Susan Gottehrer, the group’s regional director for Nassau County, said in a statement. “Making anonymous protests illegal suppresses political action and is susceptible to selective enforcement, leading to doxxing, surveillance and retaliation against protesters.”

Nassau law makes wearing a face covering to conceal one’s identity in a public place a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison and a $1,000 fine.

The measure exempts from the obligation to wear masks those who wear them for health, safety reasons, “for religious or cultural purposes or for the peaceful celebration of a festival or a similar religious or cultural event at which it is customary to wear a mask or face covering.”

In testimony before lawmakers on Monday, Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said officers will be able to distinguish between someone wearing a mask for criminal purposes and someone wearing one for medical or religious purposes.

“We’re not just going to arrest someone for wearing a mask. We’re going to go up to them, talk to them and find out,” Ryder said. according to Newsday.

The bill is expected to be signed by Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican.

“Unless someone has a medical condition or follows religious precepts, they should not be allowed to cover their face in a way that conceals their identity in public places,” he said in a statement after the parliamentary vote.

Dozens of speakers gathered in the legislative chambers, both for and against the bill.

Supporters of the bill said protesters who engage in acts of harassment or violence would not be able to avoid accountability. Opponents said the bill would violate disability privacy laws and likely would not be enforced fairly across communities.

Democratic lawmaker Arnold Drucker said before the vote that the bill “oversteps boundaries and could be harmful to First Amendment rights.”