State Government Wants to Make Being Mask-Less in Public a Misdemeanor

With no end in sight to the coronavirus pandemic, a number of local lawmakers are looking for ways to bolster our nation’s efforts at keeping COVID-19 at bay, but some of their ideas are downright draconian…or worse.

In Pennsylvania, for instance, Governor Tom Wolf was recently handed a major blow when a federal judge declared that his coronavirus lockdown measures were “unconstitutional”, stating in his opinion that, even in times of trouble, the government’s power is “not unfettered”.

Lawmakers are now taking a different approach, formally introducing legislation that would make it a misdemeanor to be caught without a mask in public.

A Pennsylvania state senator introduced legislation that would enable authorities to give misdemeanors to people who do not wear masks in public during the COVID-19 pandemic.

State Sen. Art Haywood (D) made the announcement a few months ago, and the proposal was formally introduced in the Senate Tuesday as SB-1287.

Haywood said in the proposal that it would add “failing to adhere to the face covering requirements of a declaration of disaster emergency to the crime of ‘recklessly endangering another person,’ which is a second-degree misdemeanor.

Those offenses are punishable by up to two years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

The legal battles over precautionary COVID measures have taken many forms over the course of the last half-year, and there is little doubt that bills such as this will receive plenty of backlash from freedom-minded Americans.