Posted on Mon Jun 16 15:12:06 2025 UTC
Peaceful civilians are being arrested for wearing masks during protests while ICE agents and riot police wear full facial coverings, hide their names, and refuse identification.
Trump backed new mask bans, claiming:
“If you’re not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to hide.”
Yet government agents are literally hiding their identities while dragging people off the streets.
This isn’t safety.
This is authoritarian control.
Your right to protest with a mask is protected by the Constitution.
1st Amendment – U.S. Constitution
Protects freedom of speech, peaceful assembly, and anonymous political expression.
Wearing a mask during protest is a symbolic act of protected political speech.
First Amendment
Legal Cases That Back You Up:
McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Comm’n (1995):
Supreme Court upheld anonymous political speech as protected.
“Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority.”
McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Comm'n, 514 U.S. 334 (1995).
NAACP v. Alabama (1958):
Government can’t force disclosure of identity when it risks intimidation.
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR the ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE, a Corporation, Petitioner, v. STATE OF ALABAMA, ex rel. John PATTERSON, Attorney General.
American Knights of the KKK v. City of Goshen (1999):
Court blocked a blanket mask ban, affirming mask-wearing can be political expression.
Church of the American Knights v. Kerik (2004):
Mask bans must be narrow and not suppress speech.
https://casetext.com/case/church-of-the-american-knights-v-kerik
This is how fascism takes hold.
First, they arrest you for what you wear.
Next, it’s what you say.
Then it’s how you believe or who you are.
Today it’s a protest mask.
Tomorrow it’s a Pride flag.
Or a cultural clothing.
Or not being Christian.
This is state power targeting visibility and identity and it’s not random. It’s calculated.
You are not their subject. You are a citizen with rights.
They want obedience.
They want fear.
They want silence.
And that’s exactly why you must not give it to them.
We demand:
An immediate end to unconstitutional protest mask bans
A federal investigation into unmarked, masked agents arresting civilians
Equal protection for protesters not just for the state
Resources:
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Know Your Rights | Protesters’ Rights | ACLU
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Deeplinks Blog
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.”
— Edmund Burke
This is not a time for silence.
This is not a time for fear.
This is the time to stand together.
gonna be a hot summer
