[A] decades-old Burlington law against wearing masks in public won’t be enforced during next week’s Mardi Gras celebrations in the Queen City, according to Mayor Miro Weinberger.
“No one will be prosecuted under the city’s mask ordinance for wearing a mask while participating in the Mardi Gras celebration,” Weinberger said in a statement Friday.
The city will celebrate Mardi Gras the weekend of March 4, and Weinberger will once again lead the parade down Main Street on Saturday, March 5.
The mask ordinance could be scaled down after three city council members voted to push a weaker version to the full city council for a vote earlier in the week.
The decades-old law came back into public view after two people wearing Guy Fawkes masks at an anti-KKK rally in Burlington were detained by police last November.
The Vermont Furs, a group that dresses up in cartoon animal costumes for entertainment, filled almost a dozen seats at the otherwise lightly attended meeting of the city council ordinance committee at City Hall Tuesday evening, albeit without their costumes.
Jessica Owens, a ‘Fur’ performer, told the councilors that during Mardi Gras last year, they dressed up in costumes — much like many others who wear masks during the yearly celebration. But their presence attracted a Church Street Marketplace representative, who told them to leave because they were breaking the law.
“We felt singled out, we felt discriminated against,” Owens told the councilors. “The denial of our ability to wear our suits goes against our lifestyle and our artistic interpretation, and it goes against our first amendment right to do so.”
The ACLU holds the same view, according to Jay Diaz, an ACLU staff attorney, who spoke after Owens.
“The revisions are appreciated.” he said. However, Diaz said his organization still thinks the law should be repealed outright. Laws banning masks and costumes, he said, have a chilling effect on individual rights.
People have come to the ACLU with fears about political demonstrations in Burlington and ultimately decided not to demonstrate because they fear they could be detained or arrested, Diaz said.
The law leaves the city open to a lawsuit, Diaz warned. “You can guarantee that someone, somewhere is going to call us, or call some other lawyer,” he said. “That’s an unnecessary cost to the city.”
“This is an example of the unintended consequences when a law is made for a time and not looked at holistically,” he told the councilors.
Diaz asked the councilors to write a letter to the mayor’s office and ask the city to suspend the ordinance,
The new law is constitutional, according to City Attorney Eileen Blackwood.
“Just coming out and being an entertainer, or wearing a mask because it’s cold wouldn’t violate this,” she said. “If your intent is to come out and engage in illegal or criminal behavior then wearing the mask becomes another violation.”
If City Council president Jane Knodell puts the revised law on the agenda for the next city council meeting, it could be adopted as early as March 7. The revision would go into effect about a month after it is signed by Weinberger.
