Gov. Hochul considering banning people from wearing masks on NYC subways

Gov. Kathy Hochul says she is exploring at least a partial ban on masks in the New York City subway system after images and videos of masked anti-Israel protesters on a train ricocheted around social media earlier this week.

In a news conference at the state Capitol on Thursday, Hochul said she has started discussions with Mayor Eric Adams and state lawmakers about what a mask crackdown would look like and how to craft exemptions for health and religious reasons. The mayor’s office confirmed it was looking into the issue.

But Hochul made clear she wants to see mask restrictions in some form, which she believes would help deter crime on public transit.

“We will not tolerate individuals using masks to evade responsibility for criminal or threatening behavior,” Hochul said. “My team is working on a solution, but on a subway, people should not be able to hide behind a mask to commit crimes.”

During an appearance on the "Cats & Cosby" radio show Wednesday evening, Adams compared protesters who cover their faces to the Ku Klux Klan.

"Cowards hide their face," the mayor said. "Dr. King did not hide his face when he marched and for the things he thought were wrong in the country. Those civil rights leaders did not hide their faces. They stood up. In contrast to that, the Klan hid their faces."

Hochul's team will need help from state lawmakers to put a mask ban in place, the governor acknowledged.

For more than a century, New York had a law on the books that allowed police to charge someone with loitering if they were “masked or in any manner disguised by unusual or unnatural attire or facial alteration” and that person “loiters, remains or congregates in a public place with other persons so masked or disguised.”

That law, originally put on the books in 1845, was the subject of legal wrangling in the early 2000s, when the Ku Klux Klan challenged it and ultimately lost.

But the pandemic and the civil unrest following the death of George Floyd ultimately did the law in.

In June 2020, three months into the pandemic and less than a month after Floyd’s death, the state Legislature repealed the masking portion of the loitering law, with a bill memo noting the law had “been used to criminalize protest” and ran afoul of then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s pandemic-era masking mandates.

State lawmakers ended their 2024 session at the Capitol last week. They’re not scheduled to return to Albany until January, though they could come back before then to fill a hole in the MTA’s capital budget created by Hochul’s decision to “pause” a soon-to-take-effect toll on drivers in the busiest parts of Manhattan.

Hochul said she wants to consider ways to allow for religious facial coverings as well as surgical masks that people wear for health purposes. She also said they have to consider how to take Halloween and other cultural celebrations into account.

“It's time for a reset as we consider that as an option,” she said. “But again, I want to work with our legislative leaders and find out how we can address this in a way that's thoughtful.”

Spokespeople for Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.

This story was updated with comments made by Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday.