North Carolina legislation on masks in public headed to conference committee

Changes made in the North Carolina Senate to proposed legislation targeting protestors did not get agreement from the House of Representatives on Wednesday afternoon.

The bill will go to a conference committee between members of the two chambers.

People wearing masks in public, and those blocking roads or emergency vehicles, are singled out in the proposal passed along party lines by the Senate. Contention with bill language centered on rights of immunocompromised people and their families.

Protests in the state about fossil fuels have led to road blockages, and university campuses – notably the Polk Place quad at Carolina – have been contentious areas linked to the war between Hamas and Israel.

State law involving masks dates back 71 years to activity by the Ku Klux Klan. When the COVID-19 era came, lawmakers agreed to a change that corresponded to federal and state health officials’ recommendations.