Governor Kathy Hochul is renewing her push to ban facemasks in public. Exemptions for religious and medical reasons would be worked into the legislation.
Hochul is asking the legislature to include some form of the previous public facemask ban in the budget due April 1.
Hochul first expressed her support for public facemask bans in the summer of 2024 as the country watched NY universities erupt in protests and violence in support of Hamas and in opposition to Israel and Jewish people generally. That, and increased crime where criminals and vandals were wearing masks to hide themselves.
“Masks used in — commission of a crime are deeply troubling to me,” said Governor Hochul after a recent meeting with several members of the legislature.
“Think about a bank robber — walks in, their face is covered,” Hochul said. “Someone assaults someone on the subway, they can get away with it, despite the fact that we have cameras, because they are masked.”
New York had a longstanding law that banned masks in public that was suspended by former Governor Andrew Cuomo during COVID and the BLM riots.
The law was suspended despite the fact that during the 2020 Summer of Rage when Black Lives Matter and Antifa related groups violently protested in cities across America, they used facemasks to conceal their identity from law enforcement.
Instead of keeping the law with some changes, Cuomo and the legislature repealed the law completely in 2020. Now, in 2025, with crime and violent protests increasing and criminals once again hiding themselves from security cameras and law enforcement with masks and hoods, Hochul looks to bring the mask ban back.
The New York Civil Liberties Union opposes any restrictions on public masks saying people should have a right to protest anonymously. They say that a mask ban could give police a reason to “unfairly stop” – Black, Brown, and Muslim people. Some in the legislature agree.
Others like, Sen. James Skoufis who introduced legislation to prohibit wearing a mask for the purpose of menacing or threatening violence say, ““Whether it’s in the budget or not, I think it’s long past due that we have this conversation,” he said. “There needs to be an intent to harass or menace. If you’re not doing that, wear as many masks as you want.”
Some European countries banned the public wearing of facemasks already – sometimes for different reasons. Switzerland and France banned wearing a full-face veil in public. The Netherlands, Denmark, Austria and Bulgaria have full or partial bans on wearing face coverings in public.