Another mask ban struck down. Could California offer a fix?

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Hello and welcome back to Capitol Confidential. Legislators are back in Sacramento this week after their July recess, and it’s off to the races as legislators and staffers stare down the final month of the 2025-2026 legislative session. 

These next two weeks will see a flurry of last-minute wheeling and dealing as bills make their way through fiscal committees. Not all bills must go to appropriations – only those with a certain financial impact. But the monetary thresholds for bills are relatively low in both chambers, ensuring most bills with significant policy implications will have to endure the rigamarole. 

Bills that don’t make it straight through fiscal committees will be held in the suspense file, and their final fate will be decided by the Aug. 14 deadline. We’ll be updating you on how some of the most-watched bills fare in the suspense file hearings next week. Until then, let’s dive into one such piece of legislation. 

Amid President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, blue-state lawmakers have attempted to push back by stripping federal immigration officers of the ability to conceal their identity behind a mask. 

Back in 2025, even before the nationwide outcry over the deadly shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, California lawmakers introduced a first-in-the-nation mask ban. 

In the months since, several states have followed – and so have court decisions striking the bans down. But a legislative workaround to the California ban, SB1004, has made its way through hearings and committees over the past few months, waiting for a make-or-break decision at the suspense file hearing next week. 

It started with SB627, named the No Secret Police Act, introduced by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, and signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in September. It banned federal law enforcement from wearing masks in California, but was swiftly challenged by the Trump administration, who filed a suit against the law just weeks after it was passed.

The administration’s legal challenge also took aim at SB805, written by Sen. Sasha Perez, D-Alhambra, which required law enforcement agents not in uniform to clearly display identification showing their agency and either their name or badge number. Named the No Vigilantes Act, it would have applied to federal agents operating in the state, including those with ICE, Border Patrol and Homeland Security.

But both laws were slapped down by the courts before they could go into effect. 

In April, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena granted the administration’s request for an injunction of Perez’s SB805. And in February, a federal court ruling from the U.S. District Court Judge Christina Snyder put the brakes on Wiener’s mask ban, SB627. 

Snyder, however, didn’t find that the law had violated the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, as the administration argued. Rather, the judge took issue with the legislation’s provision exempting state law enforcement, ruling the law was unconstitutional because it discriminated against federal agents. Wiener spun that as a “win,” and promptly introduced legislation designed to sidestep the legal roadblocks. 

That mask ban re-do, SB1004, would ban masks worn by both state and federal officers, directly addressing the provision Snyder based her ruling on. 

Yet the bill faces an uphill climb. It’s now at the mercy of the often opaque suspense file hearing, a fast-paced cutting room floor that acts as a tool for whittling down the glut of legislation each year. If the bill makes it through, it’s also unclear if the governor will sign off, as Newsom suggested earlier this year on the heels of the federal court ruling that he is not in favor of banning masks for state officers, instead doubling down on a need for a federal mask ban. Wiener told the Chronicle earlier this year that the decision to exempt state officers from the ban came as a result of negotiations with Newsom’s office. That decision ultimately doomed the bill.

The administration’s ongoing immigration raids and detentions have continued in the wake of the ruling, further entrenching negative public sentiment against ICE. Several other states have also tried their own mask bans, some of which have run up against similar legal challenges. According to the American Immigration Council, Washington, Oregon, Maryland, New Jersey, Connecticut, Virginia and New York have put forward their own legislative efforts to ban face coverings, and the Department of Justice has sued New Jersey, Connecticut, Virginia and New York over their measures. 

On Aug. 4, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction pausing New York’s ban. Judge Mae D’Agostino of the Northern District of New York ruled the law violated the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. 

Assembly Member Heath Flora, R-Modesto, is no longer the Republican Assembly leader. 

He held the job for less than a year, and with only one month left in the legislative session, he was booted. His tenure has been a rocky one.

The abrupt change in leadership came a day after the California Post published a story reporting that the legislator is under ethics investigations.

A Sacramento Bee investigation last year also found that Flora was not living in the Central Valley home that was registered as his “legal domicile,” did not pay child support until a court-initiated wage garnishment and regularly spent campaign funds at Sacramento restaurants and bars for district meetings. 

In a press conference at the Assembly on the day of her appointment to replace Flora on Monday, Assembly Member Alexandra Macedo, R-Tulare, rebuffed reporters’ questions about whether the recent investigations were tied to the leadership reshuffle.

“Republican Assembly Leader Heath Flora has served his caucus, his constituents, and California Republicans for years, and we thank him for his service,” California Republican Party Chairwoman Corrin Rankin said in a statement.

“Alexandra Macedo represents a new generation of Republican leadership in California,” she added.

Along with Macedo’s new position, the shakeup has also given a few other Assembly members some promotions: David Tangipa, R-Clovis, is now minority whip, Joshua Hoover, R-Folsom, is minority floor leader, Natasha Johnson, R-Corona, is minority caucus chair and Joe Patterson, R-Rocklin, is minority deputy leader.

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