By Karen Sloan
WASHINGTON, April 29 (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday filed a lawsuit seeking to block a New Jersey law that bans law enforcement officers from wearing masks and requires them to provide identification before arrests and detentions.
The suit, filed in a Newark federal court, claims that the newly enacted New Jersey Law Enforcement Officer Protection Act is an unconstitutional regulation of the federal government by a state. The suit seeks an injunction blocking New Jersey from enforcing the law against federal agents, though it also applies to local and state law enforcement.
A federal judge in February preliminarily struck down a similar California law banning federal officers from wearing masks while on duty.
Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division said in a prepared statement that the agency will “steadfastly protect the privacy and safety of law enforcement.” According to the complaint, New Jersey’s mask ban endangers federal law enforcement officers by increasing their risk of having their personal information “doxxed,” being harassed or assaulted.
New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport said the law protects both the public and law enforcement by limiting the use of masks to situations where they are necessary for safety or operations.
“To this day, the federal government still cannot explain when its officials need to mask or forgo identification in violation of this law, or why they actually need to do so, particularly given the serious safety concerns inherent in anonymized policing,” Davenport said in a prepared statement.
(Reporting by Christian Martinez and Ismail Shakil; Editing by Stephen Coates)
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