Once required, masks are shifting from being mandated to being criminalized in some states

Mask wearing was mandatory just a few years ago.

But, according to a report in The Washington Post, several state legislatures are starting to criminalize it and local law enforcement is using laws against it that had rarely been enforced.

The Post reported that the anti-masking efforts are raising concerns among two groups.

Civil libertarians see it as an effort to target Antifa, anti-Israel and other demonstrators, while public-health officials have raised concerns about persons with compromised immune systems merely trying to protect themselves from COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases.

But the backlash among lawmakers is bipartisan, the Post noted.

The Republican-dominated legislature in North Carolina passed a law criminalizing wearing a mask in public. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the bill, but an override effort is gaining momentum.

Meanwhile in deep-blue New York, Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul backed potential state legislation that would ban wearing masks in the New York City subway, reacting to an incident in which masked student protesters threatened passengers by yelling “raise your hands if you’re a Zionist. This is your chance to get out.”

Laws already exist against public masking in almost 20 states, the Post reported, citing the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law and noting the historic link between such laws and efforts to crack down on the Ku Klux Klan and criminal gangs.

But in recent weeks, the Post reported, “student protesters in Ohio, Texas and Florida have been threatened with arrest for covering their faces.”

The North Carolina bill that would ban masks has an exception for “a medical or surgical grade mask for the purpose of preventing the spread of contagious disease.”

But opponents of mask bans say such exceptions make the law impractical to enforce — anyone can state or misstate a reason for mask wearing.

And the Post also cited the case of a North Carolina woman with Stage 4 breast cancer who wears a mask because the treatment damages her immune system.

Shari Stuart told the Post that when she went to get her car serviced, a man told her she was a “[expletive] liberal” who was breaking the law, and also coughed on her and wished death on her.

Correction: An earlier version of this story did not properly credit the Washington Post’s reporting on the issue.