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Last week, Nassau County on Long Island in New York State was the first county in the US to ban the wearing of masks in public since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic – with very vague exceptions for health reasons. The ban in Nassau follows a similarly controversial statewide mask ban in North Carolina that went into effect in June.

Several concerns have been raised about Nassau’s mask ban. One is that it is the job of the police to determine whether a person is wearing a mask for valid health reasons – not public health or medical experts. Another is that the pandemic is not over yet and wearing medical masks while shopping or even at a protest is intended to limit exposure to the disease. Some residents fear that a ban will lead to harassment from local anti-mask groups.

The county’s move has sparked the first class-action lawsuit challenging a mask ban. The suit was filed Thursday by Disability Rights New York in federal district court against Nassau County and County Administrator Bruce Blakeman on behalf of two anonymous residents.

“This mask ban poses a direct threat to public health and discriminates against people with disabilities,” said Timothy A. Clune, the Managing Director, in a press release.

One of the residents, who has cerebral palsy and asthma, said he was stopped and questioned by other residents after the ban was passed – even before it went into effect – and is now, according to the complaint, “afraid of being arrested … because there is no standard for police to determine whether they meet the health exception.”

The other resident named in the complaint, who wears a mask due to various immune disorders, is now “terrified of going out in public with a mask,” the complaint states.

Both plaintiffs say that wearing masks has enabled them to participate in public life as disabled people during the ongoing pandemic. Disability Rights NY argues in the lawsuit that the ban, as currently written, is unconstitutional and violates both the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, both central points of federal civil rights legislation, because it denies disabled people access to their own communities.

“Local laws that override or limit rights granted by federal law are declared invalid,” the complaint states.

Given that Covid itself Jason Cohen, a Nassau-based neurologist and disability expert, has serious concerns about the impact of the mask ban.

“I care for many patients who have brain fog due to Covid and many more who are at higher risk for brain damage due to Covid,” Cohen said. “Anything that discourages those who want to wear a mask from wearing a mask is a travesty and a public health disaster.”

Cohen also says that governments “should not force people to reveal their personal medical information to police in order to negotiate their way out of a crime charge.”

Some disabled people still have concerns about the lawsuit itself. Ngozi, a black disabled person who lives just across the borough line in Queens, fears the lawsuit could end up “in some kind of negotiation with the state that results in the law remaining in effect,” leaving the risk of racial profiling intact.

“I have no trust in the state,” said Ngozi. “A lawsuit will not eliminate the danger of mask bans so quickly.”

Disability Rights New York is seeking a declaratory judgment that Nassau County’s mask ban violates federal law and a preliminary injunction. The full complaint is below.