In a daring but constitutionally healthy movement, Mayor Eric Adams, New York City, has announced a new policy that prohibits wearing face masks in certain public spaces. Predictable, the usual critics have started hyperventilation-this commonly sensible public safety measure equalizing an attack on civil freedoms. But reports that some Jewish groups are not on board are extremely exaggerated. Much, if not most, regular groups support the bill, and in fact the groups mentioned by anonymous sources have in fact emerged in fact publicly to support masks bans, and in one case in particular this mask ban. A sober evaluation of the facts and the law reveals an initiative that is much less outrageous and much more important than the haters you want to believe: a responsible effort not only to protect Jewish citizens, but all New Yorkers while staying good within the limits of constitutional case law.
The Constitution does not guarantee the right to anonymous public demonstrations through hidden identity. As the American Court of Appeal explained for the second circuit in the Church of the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klux Klan v. Kerik, 356 F.3D 197 (2d Circ. 2004), “The Supreme Court never ruled that freedom of association or the right to pursue a right to connect a right.
That case concerned the KKK – an organization that is notorious to exploit anonymity to intimidate and terrorize. And yet the principle applies universally: in a civil society, especially someone who has to deal with increasing crime, anti -Semitic threats and politically charged tensions that spill in our streets, the state has a compelling interest in identifying individuals in public spaces.
Mayor of NYC Adams calls ‘Anti-Jewish’ and ‘Anti-American’ hate at university campuses
New York, like many large cities, is confronted with a crisis of rising masked violence. From anti -Semitic mobs that destroy Jewish companies to coordinated FLA -Mafia -Robberies, bad actors abusing visions -not for public health, but to avoid accountability. The policy of mayor Adams is not about focusing peaceful demonstrators. The point is to stop those who hide behind the veil of anonymity to harm others or to violate the law. That is not only smart policy – it is the basic board. And the law stands square by its side.
Mayor Adams does not prohibit a speech. He does not focus on a point of view. He just says that in a free society public protest must be public. That is a narrow, substantive behavioral regulation, not a restriction on expression and well within the constitutional framework that has been established by the Supreme Court.
It is well established that the government can impose reasonable time, place and method restrictions on speech and association- especially when public safety is at stake. During the COVID-19 Pandemie, courts made it clear that even compulsory mask laws could be maintained constitutionally. Certainly, the opposite – a ban on masks in contexts in which they pose a threat of public safety – is just as legal. When demonstrators march with masks, they hinder the assets of the police to maintain order and investigate crimes. And that is not only theoretical- both NYPD and DA officials have cited several authorities in which masked agitators used anonymity to provoke violence, to destroy ownership or avoid arrest.
Even the ACLU, when it is fair, will admit that the first amendment is not a suicide pact. Rights are in balance with responsibilities. And the right to speak does not automatically translate into a right to hide someone’s identity on a public square during a moment of high voltage.
Click here for more the opinion of Fox News
For those who are concerned about a possible horrifying effect: there are better ways to protect speech than to encourage lawlessness. People have the right to express different opinions. They have no constitutional right to do this while they are dressed for anonymity in a way that frustrates law enforcement and endangers the public. The best remedy for attacking speech is more speech, no more masks. Civil disobedience always needs courage – and that includes the willingness to support your beliefs, literally, with your face discovered. From Martin Luther King Jr. Until Soviet refusals, the history of protest is a history of public witness, non -masked mobs.
Mayor Adams has done what responsible leaders should: Betalay Liberty with safety, transparency with protection. He has not forbidden protests. He has not censored speech. He only said that if you want to speak in public, you have to do this with your face – just as millions of brave Americans have done in our history, marching for justice without hiding who they are.
Click here to get the Fox News app
The reality is this: when people feel unsafe through the streets or riding the metro, the whole idea of an open society starts to crumble. Order is not the enemy of freedom. It is the condition. We live in a democracy, not a masquerade.
And it’s time for us to behave like this.
