Court: Masks can be enforced

Palm Beach County mandate ruled as ‘protecting the health’

Palm Beach County cannot be blocked from enforcing its COVID-19 mask mandate, an appeals court ruled Wednesday.

“The mask mandate is directed to protecting the health ... of people in the proximity of the mask wearer,” the 4th District Court of Appeal said in a ruling on a case brought by four Palm Beach County residents challenging the legality of the mask requirements.

The county’s mandate has “has a clear rational basis based on the protection of public health.” the court ruled.

The decision allows Palm Beach County and other districts in South Florida, including Broward County, to require masks to be worn in public to slow the spread of the coronavirus. It upheld a trial court ruling that found citizens do not have a “constitutional right to infect others” with COVID-19.

Earlier this month, a vocal opponent of mask mandates was arrested in West Boca after she refused to cover her face in an Enstein Bros. Bagels shop. The woman, Cindy Falco-DiCorrado, 62, of Boynton Beach, then refused to leave the store, resulting in her arrest on a trespassing charge.

Mask mandates have proven to be a wedge in South Florida, with many seeing them as an extension of political differences between mask supporting liberals on one side and conservatives who press their personal freedoms on the other.

The appeals court ruling sought to strip politics from the dispute.

The county’s mandate has “has a clear rational basis based on the protection of public health” and is thus constitutional, the court ruled.