First Amendment doesn't protect defying mask order, court rules

Refusing to follow a public health order requiring face masks to be worn in public does not violate the First Amendment right to free speech, a federal appeals court ruled. 

New Jersey residents George Falcone and Gwyneth Murray-Nolan filed lawsuits alleging that "they were punished in retaliation for refusing to wear a COVID-protective mask at Board of Education meetings," the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals said in its ruling Monday. 

"A question shadowing suits such as these is whether there is a First Amendment right to refuse to wear a protective mask as required by valid health and safety orders put in place during a recognized public health emergency," the court also said. "Like all courts to address this issue, we conclude there is not."

The ruling came from a three-judge panel consisting of appointees of former Presidents Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Barack Obama. 

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