The Modesto City Council will decide tonight whether to spend $250,000 more in additional expenses defending in court its controversial ban on masks at public protests.
If approved, the cost would be added to the nearly $100,000 city leaders already allotted for legal services to justify the embattled ordinance, for a total of $349,500.
“Modesto should spend its limited resources on improving residents’ lives, not defending an unconstitutional ordinance that endangers journalists and forces people to choose between speaking out and staying safe,” said Chessie Thacher, senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, which is bringing the lawsuit.
Only three cities in California have local ordinances prohibiting face coverings in public assemblies; the others are Oakland and Lomita. Modesto is the only one to enforce its ban – when five people were arrested during an ICE Out rally in June 2025. Charges were dropped before their first court date.
The ACLU last summer said it would sue Modesto, whose leaders declined to repeal the ban in December despite urging from the city’s Community Police Review Board. The ACLU sued Modesto on March 25 on behalf of the Pacific Media Workers Guild and three individual plaintiffs, one of whom was arrested at the June protest.
The suit claims the local ordinance is “absurd” for requiring that police officers pick and choose which crowd members might be violating the local law and which might be using masks for medical or religious reasons or merely wearing costumes.
The ban also makes journalists less safe by banning protective gear routinely used by reporters covering protests in other cities, according to the lawsuit. Media organizations widely encourage the use of such equipment.
Modesto leaders have said the ordinance is a tool to help police keep the peace.
The agenda summary for today’s council meeting does not make specific reference to the lawsuit, the ACLU, the guild, masks or face coverings, and the proposed expense appears on the meeting’s consent agenda. That means it’s lumped in with other noncontroversial matters requiring no discussion for approval, unless someone requests removal from consent status.
Attachments within the agenda packet make reference to the city’s initial approval in July to spend $35,000 on “legal advice and assistance in relation to the City’s ordinance related to public assembly,” with no mention of masks or face coverings.
Facing stiff opposition from people during public comment portions of council meetings, leaders upped the allotment to $95,000 in October and to $99,500 in February. Tuesday’s proposal, citing “the recent challenge to the ordinance,” would allow the city to spend up to $349,500 on “litigation defense and trial counsel.”
“It will be a waste of money,” retired Modesto attorney David Rockwell told The Modesto Focus. He cited a 1978 ruling in Ghafari v. Municipal Court declaring such bans unconstitutional, a widely accepted decision noted in ACLU correspondence with Modesto City Hall.
An Aug. 8 Modesto Focus article said Modesto could become a legal test case for mask bans, and noted the city’s spotty record attempting to defend civil rights litigation involving substandard public services in poor neighborhoods and unequal racial representation in various agencies. Two 2004 lawsuits cost millions to defend, and Modesto won neither.
A Modesto Focus analysis found that audience members during public comment had decried the mask ban 135 times from July through December, while 10 supported it.
In addition to banning face coverings at public gatherings, the ordinance also prohibits large sticks, glass or metal water bottles, umbrellas with pointy ends, hardshell bicycle and motorcycle helmets and tactical gear like vests.
The City Council is scheduled to discuss the lawsuit in closed session, out of the public eye, at 3:30 p.m. today, April 7. Its regular meeting starts at 5:30 p.m. in the basement chamber at Tenth Street Place, 1010 10th St.
Garth Stapley is the accountability reporter for The Modesto Focus, a project of the nonprofit Central Valley Journalism Collaborative. Contact him at garth@themodestofocus.org.