Judge rules on CA’s mask ban for law enforcement

A federal judge has pumped the brakes on a California law banning local and federal officers from wearing masks. But both sides — California lawmakers and the Trump administration — are claiming victory. In her ruling Monday, District Judge Christina Snyder, a Clinton-appointee, said that because the legislation exempted state law enforcement, it discriminated against federal agents and is therefore unconstitutional. Authored by state Sen. Scott Wiener, the law was supposed to go into effect Jan. 1, but has been put on hold after the Trump administration sued last November to block the measure. Snyder’s temporary injunction goes into effect Feb. 19. U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi called the ruling a “key court victory” on social media, adding that the federal Justice Department will “continue fighting and winning in court for President (Donald) Trump’s law-and-order agenda.” So why, then, did Wiener also consider the ruling “a huge win”? Wiener argues that Snyder’s ruling just means the law “must apply to all levels of police,” including state officers, to be considered constitutional. The San Francisco Democrat said he initially included the carveout based on talks with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office — a claim Newsom’s aides deny, reports The New York Times — and now plans to introduce a bill that includes state officers. At an unrelated bill signing in Sacramento on Tuesday, Newsom told reporters that he was “disappointed in the (court’s) decision,” and that he believed the measure “should have been a federal masking bill, period.” In her ruling, Snyder disagreed with the Justice Department’s argument that the law prevents federal agents from doing their jobs. Instead, she said that “the Court finds no cognizable justification for law enforcement officers to conceal their identities during their performance of routine.” Monday’s ruling also upholds a companion law requiring officers to be readily identifiable, to which the bill’s original author — Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez, a Pasadena Democrat — called a “major victory.”