Will Nassau's mask law hold up in Blakeman's reelection year?

Daily Point

County exec mum on dismissal of protester case

When it comes to Nassau County’s contentious restriction on wearing masks in public, the question — three and a half months after County Executive Bruce Blakeman signed it into law – lingers as to whether it will prove useful for community safety or problematic.

On Nov. 23, it looked like the latter. A misdemeanor charge, the first filed at a demonstration, was dropped after being lodged against Xavier Roa, 26, of Bellmore. His arrest occurred at a demonstration supporting Palestinian opposition to Israel in the largely Jewish community of Cedarhurst.

Roa allegedly covered his face with a kaffiyeh, an Arab scarf, and when asked, authorities said, he didn’t mention religious or medical reasons which would exempt him from the law. They said Roa said, “in solidarity for the Palestinian movement.”

Nicole Turso, a spokeswoman for the Nassau County district attorney, Anne Donnelly, has told Newsday: "The case was investigated extensively and upon conclusion NCDA determined that the allegations could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt and moved to dismiss the charges.”

Going forward, targeting someone wearing anything perceived as traditional or religious garb as purposely masking identity from criminal charges could effectively keep the law from its widely perceived aim – of helping police prosecute or dissuade hateful intimidations such as those in New York City where protesters confronted Jews and Israel supporters.

A veteran Nassau County lawyer who asked not to be identified foresaw enforcement trouble for Nassau’s law when speaking with The Point on Monday. The attorney wondered aloud if any D.A. would put resources into prosecuting a misdemeanor offense for which only a desk-appearance ticket was issued if the case had any chance of triggering a successful civil-rights lawsuit. Roa’s attorney had threatened just that.

The lawyer noted that some of the potentially relevant precedent generated in recent years stems from the laws of the municipal workplace where, for example, Sikhs in the NYPD have won the right to wear turbans and beards on the job.

Upon signing it, Blakeman said that while mask-wearing campus protesters did inspire the law, it could be used against everyday crime as well.

In a separate case in September, police in Nassau County arrested a teenager wearing black clothing and a black ski mask, carrying a 14-inch knife, a burglary suspect and facing a misdemeanor violation of the face mask law in the coming days. That was tacked on to a weapons-possession and governmental obstruction charge. No resolution has yet been publicly reported.

So it is still ambiguous as to whether the Nassau legislature’s Democratic minority leader, Delia DeRiggi-Whitton, was right in August when in opposing the Blakeman mask initiative she said: “Bruce Blakeman's decision to sign the mask ban law is nothing more than political theater and a blatant waste of taxpayer money.

“This law is destined to be struck down in court, further tarnishing Blakeman's already losing record of lawsuits," she predicted.

But despite constitutional criticism from the New York Civil Liberties Union, no court challenges or conflicts involving the law have reached the point where its validity faces a test. After Donnelly’s office dropped the charge against the protester Roa, Blakeman’s office offered no public comment or criticism, as he usually has when cases on which he had a firm opinion seemed to go against what he supported. The overturning of his ban on transgender women playing on female teams in county facilities by GOP Nassau State Supreme Court Justice Francis Ricigliano led Blakeman to issue a statement impugning the judge’s “courage.” Ricigliano had simply ruled the measure required legislative approval to take effect.

Litigation on Blakeman initiatives has generated news since he took office nearly three years ago. That’s expected to continue in 2025, an election year.

— Dan Janison dan.janison@newsday.com

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