Testimony Before the Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs

Hannah E. Meyers testified in a hearing titled Unmasking Protestors.

Watch the full testimony here.

Chairman Hughes, members of the committee: thank you for the invitation to discuss the urgent need for Texas to re-instate a mask ban. Around the country, people are exploiting masks to conceal their identities while committing crimes and terrorizing citizens. As I will detail, many jurisdictions, like Texas, previously had or still have successful bans on the books, and many are creating new bans, which are both constitutional and effective.

Anti-masking laws are essential to preserving the First Amendment right to assemble, petition for redress of grievances, and otherwise express ourselves, while preventing intimidation and harassment and maintaining a society where individuals are accountable for their conduct. Today, the relevance of anti masking laws is that much starker, since masks are still used to evade identification despite the spread of surveillance and body-worn cameras and facial recognition technology in solving and prosecuting crimes.

Click here to read the full testimony.

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Hannah Meyers is director of the policing and public safety initiative at the Manhattan Institute.