Suburban New York county bans wearing of masks to hide identity

MINEOLA, N.Y. -- Lawmakers in a suburban New York county have approved a bill to ban masks in public places with exemptions for people who cover their faces for health reasons or religious or cultural purposes.

Supporters said the bill approved Monday by the Republican-controlled Nassau County Legislature on Long Island would prevent violent protesters from hiding their identity.

Legislator Howard Kopel said the measure was introduced in response to “antisemitic incidents, often perpetrated by those in masks” since the Oct. 7 start of the latest Israel-Hamas war.

All 12 Republicans in the legislature voted in favor of the measure, while the body's seven Democrats abstained.

The county lawmakers acted after New York's Democratic governor, Kathy Hochul, said in June that she was considering a ban on face masks in the New York City subway system. No specific plan has been announced to enact such a ban, which like the Nassau measure was floated in response to the rise in mask-wearing protesters.

The New York Civil Liberties Union criticized the Nassau mask ban as an infringement on free speech rights.

“Masks protect people who express political opinions that are unpopular,” the group's Nassau County regional director Susan Gottehrer said in a statement. “Making anonymous protest illegal chills political action and is ripe for selective enforcement, leading to doxxing, surveillance, and retaliation against protesters.”

The Nassau bill makes it a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine for anyone to wear a facial covering to hide their identity in public.

The measure exempts people who wear masks for health, safety, “religious or cultural purposes, or for the peaceful celebration of a holiday or similar religious or cultural event for which masks or facial coverings are customarily worn.”

In testimony to legislators on Monday, Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said officers would know the difference between someone wearing a mask for criminal reasons and someone wearing it for medical or religious purposes.

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

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican, is expected to sign the bill.

“Unless someone has a medical condition or a religious imperative, people should not be allowed to cover their face in a manner that hides their identity when in public,” he said in a statement after the legislature’s vote.

Dozens of public speakers for and against the bill packed the legislative chambers.

Supporters said the bill would keep protesters who commit acts of harassment or violence from evading accountability. In contrast, opponents said it would infringe on the health privacy laws of people with disabilities and would likely not be enforced fairly across different communities.

Democratic Legislator Arnold Drucker said before the vote that the bill “overstepped and could be detrimental to First Amendment rights.”