Can Trump ban protestors from wearing masks? How states have used anti-mask laws before

President Donald Trump sought ways for the federal government to clamp down on Los Angeles protests over immigration enforcement.

“From now on, MASKS WILL NOT BE ALLOWED to be worn at protests,” Trump wrote June 8 on Truth Social. “What do these people have to hide, and why???”

Trump, in a swipe at California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, wrote in a subsequent post, “These are not protesters, they are troublemakers and insurrectionists. Remember, NO MASKS!”

We contacted the White House for comment and received no reply.

Margaret Brennan, host of CBS’ “Face the Nation,” asked Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem who would enforce Trump’s mask ban. “How can you justify it when law enforcement officials have their faces covered?” Brennan asked.

Noem offered no details. “National Guard soldiers are there to provide security for operations and to make sure that we have peaceful protests,” she said. “And I won’t get more specific on that, just because we never do when it comes to law enforcement operations.”

Because Congress hasn’t passed such a law, Trump can’t ban masks, said Elly Page, senior legal advisor at the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, an organization focused on legal issues about civic spaces. However, Trump could ask the Justice Department “to more aggressively prosecute people who are masked, based on other federal laws,” Page said.

In states and local jurisdictions that have mask laws, Trump could also encourage state and local officials to prosecute mask wearers.

Many states banned masks decades ago to thwart the Ku Klux Klan. Such laws were revived — or newly proposed — in recent years in response to protests, including those over the  Israel-Hamas war.

Free speech advocates criticize mask laws as being wrongly used against protesters.

“Now these laws are being used across the country to try and clamp down on disfavored groups and movements, raising questions about selective prosecution,” wrote Jay Stanley, American Civil Liberties Union senior policy analyst, in 2024.

The Trump administration has promoted mask bans before. In its battle with Columbia and Harvard universities involving campus protests, the administration instructed the universities to ban masks in order to receive federal dollars.

Demonstrators near a main gate at Columbia University in New York on April 30, 2024, as New York City police officers move to clear the area after a building was taken over by pro-Palestinian protesters earlier in the day. (AP)

Trump likely lacks legal authority to ban masks on his own

But legal experts said Trump’s effort to ban protesters’ masks could face hurdles.

“Trump has no authority to order the arrests of anyone wearing masks at protests,” said Jonathan Markovitz, an attorney at the ACLU of Southern California.

“Courts have recognized that there are times where anonymity is essential to allow people to exercise their constitutional right,” Markovitz said. “Trump’s threats to immediately ban masks at protests is clearly unenforceable.”

RELATED: President Trump said he ‘brought back free speech.’ His first 100 days tell a different story.

California Code, Section 185 makes it unlawful to wear a mask or disguise to avoid being identified while violating the law.

“But that law does not apply to people who are exercising their First Amendment right to protest and hold officials accountable for their policies and actions,” Markovitz said.

Rachel Moran, a criminal defense attorney and University of St. Thomas associate law professor, told PolitiFact she knows of no presidential authority to ban or criminalize mask-wearing protesters en masse. The question of whether to criminalize mask-wearing is a legislative decision, not an executive one, she said.

“Protesters could arguably have a better case for wearing masks than other people,” Moran said, because they could argue the masks are related to political expression, “which is the core of what the First Amendment protects.”

Protesters confront a line of U.S. National Guard in the Metropolitan Detention Center of downtown Los Angeles on June 8, following an immigration raid protest the night before. (AP)

History of anti-mask laws

The earliest laws banning masked demonstrations date to the 19th century, according to an article by Rob Kahn, University of St. Thomas law professor and expert on mask wearing.

New York passed a mask ban in 1845 in response to tenants wearing masks and challenging attempts by state officials to collect back rent, Kahn wrote in a law journal article.

New York later used an anti-mask law to target Occupy Wall Street protestersthen repealed the law in 2020. A recent New York proposal to criminalize mask-wearing in certain circumstances is pending.

By the 1950s, many states had adopted mask bans in response to the Ku Klux Klan, a violent white supremacist group whose members wore masks to hide their identities during racist attacks.

In recent years, supporters of mask bans argue that masks are used by people committing crimes while critics say masks sometimes allow people to anonymously express their views.

Courts have issued mixed rulings on mask laws, but several laws remain on the books.

The Sick Times, a website that chronicles long Covid, and the International Center for Non-Profit Law compiled information on more than a dozen states with mask ban laws that vary in scope.

Several states prohibit wearing masks while committing a crime or with intent to commit a crime.

A small number of states have broad mask bans. Florida’s 1951 law bans wearing a mask or hood on public property and has similar restrictions for people over the age of 16 while holding a meeting or demonstration on private property, unless the owner provides permission.

In 2024, North Carolina legislators overrode Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of a bill to prevent lawbreakers from getting away with crimes by covering their faces, reinforcing a 1953 ban. The bill passed the state House less than a month after students at UNC-Chapel Hill wore masks while protesting Israel’s continued attacks on Gaza.

After a pro-Palestinian demonstration outside a Los Angeles synagogue in 2024, Los Angeles mayor Bass, a Democrat, said the city should consider “the idea of people wearing masks at protests” but did not offer a specific proposal.

In Congress, bills to ban face coverings have stalled or failed. In March, Rep. Addison McDowell, R-NC, proposed the Unmasking Hamas Act of 2025but it has not advanced. That bill says a person in a disguise or mask who “injures, oppresses, threatens, or intimidates” faces up to 15 years in prison. McDowell said the law increases penalties for people who violate the constitutional rights of others or destroy federal property.

Similar past bills including one in 2018 did not pass.

After a pro-Palestinian demonstration outside a Los Angeles synagogue in 2024, Los Angeles mayor Bass, a Democrat, said the city should consider “the idea of people wearing masks at protests” but did not offer a specific proposal.

Prosecuting individuals for wearing masks is rare

Prosecutions for violating mask laws are rare, Kahn said.

“Since New York adopted its mask ban in the 1840s, there have been under 100 reported cases,” Kahn said, but that would not include situations where police officers told people to unmask.

Last year, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost warned college campus protesters against wearing facial coverings, citing the state’s “prohibition against conspiracy while wearing disguise” law. The 1953 measure makes it a felony to commit a crime with two or more people “while wearing white caps, masks, or other disguise.”

That principle could apply to campus protests, Yost wrote in a May 6 letter to Ohio’s university presidents. Under the “anti-disguise” law, masked students protesting the war in Gaza risk facing a fourth-degree felony charge, up to $5,000 in fines and five years on community control, Yost wrote.

“Students should protest within the bounds of the law, and not commit crimes,” Yost wrote.”They should own their advocacy and avoid wearing masks.”

PolitiFact researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this article.

RELATED: LA protests: What US law says about Trump’s deployment of CA National Guard, U.S. Marines

RELATED: Timeline: Was the California National Guard at LA protests when Trump thanked them?