Justice Department files complaint against Maryland over mask ban for federal officers

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a complaint Thursday against the state of Maryland over a new mask ban for federal officers, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. 

The complaint, filed in state district court, specifically challenges Maryland, along with Montgomery and Prince George's counties, Attorney General Anthony Brown and the Maryland Police Training Standards Commission.

The state law bans federal law enforcement officers from wearing masks while on duty, except during active undercover operations. It also requires them to provide identification when on duty. 

State lawmakers approved the measure back in April before Gov. Wes Moore signed the bill into law in May. It went into effect Thursday, along with several other laws slated for Oct. 1. 

Montgomery and Prince George's counties also implemented similar mask bans earlier this year.

The Justice Department on Thursday called the state and county laws an "unconstitutional attempt to regulate federal law enforcement officers." The DOJ said this is now the eighth state it has sued over the "unlawful regulation" of federal officers.

"Federal law prohibits state and local governments from regulating the activities of the Federal Government. United States v. Washington, 596 U.S. 832, 838 (2022). Despite this well established principle, the State of Maryland and the counties of Prince George's County, Maryland and Montgomery County, Maryland have recently enacted laws that purport to do exactly what the Constitution says they cannot: regulate how federal law enforcement agencies and their officers carry out their official duties in those jurisdictions," the introduction of the complaint reads.

Before the state law was enacted, the attorney general had expressed concerns it could lead to legal trouble. 

"In my view, there is a high likelihood that a court would find that application of SB 1's face-covering prohibition or identification requirement to federal law enforcement would violate the Supremacy Clause, and specifically, the intergovernmental immunity doctrine, because to do so would directly regulate the federal government," Brown said in a May 12 letter to Moore, as cited in the complaint.

ICE has previously said officers wear masks for their safety and to protect themselves and their families from doxing incidents. 

CBS News Baltimore has reached out to the parties named in the complaint but have yet to hear back.