@arstechnica The timing of this points to intent: not to survive court challenges that can take months to years, but to give police the ability to arrest peaceful and cooperative protestors who aren’t protesting on private property, and it allows authorities to say that only lawful protests are acceptable.
Sometimes the point of absurd laws isn’t to survive longterm, it’s to quash a movement’s momentum. This is why legal challenges to such laws should induce stays immediately.
@arstechnica So they've been warned about possible (read: likely) problems with their legislation, and they're passing it anyway. This is why you should never elect Republicans.
They did not make it illegal to "publicly mask for health reasons", but removed the clause that previously exempted wearing a mask for health reasons from a law that broadly made masking in public illegal.
Still stupid and reprehensible, but significantly different to your byline and heading
"Specifically, the bill repeals a 2020 legal exemption, enacted amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which allowed for public health-based masking for the first time in decades."
@arstechnica Really convenient how banning masks will also help de-anonymize protesters. No way that's their main goal, governments always push for the safety of protesters.
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