Capitol protests can resume with masks, state says, weddings, too

Weddings are returning to the Capitol -- and so are protests.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a policy Thursday making masks mandatory in most public settings. The order comes as he has been scaling back various stay-at-home edicts affecting businesses, churches and other gatherings.

The California Highway Patrol has rescinded its policy banning protests and other events on state property. The policy was not specific to the Capitol, but it was the prohibition on protests at there that led a pair of political activists to sue to overturn the policy. The state has argued the lawsuit is now moot.

The ban followed a large Capitol protest April 20 against Newsom's stay-at-home orders. The Highway Patrol website now lists more than 50 permitted and pending events set for the Capitol grounds through August. These begin Saturday with three weddings.

The first protest is set for Tuesday by V for Vaccine, an anti-vaccine group. This will be followed Wednesday by another protest against Newsom's stay-at-home orders held by a group called Camp WE THE PEOPLE.

The Highway Patrol did not announce the change on its website. Instead, it showed up in a motion to dismiss filed Tuesday by Attorney General Xavier Becerra's office in Givens v. Newsom, 2:20-cv-00852-JAM-CKD (E.D. Cal., filed April 27, 2020).

"The claims in the complaint are moot because state public health directives no longer prohibit outdoor protests," argued the motion signed by Deputy Attorney General Amie L. Medley. She cited new public health directives that "led CHP to update its policies."

The attorneys for the plaintiffs -- San Francisco-based D. Gill Sperlein and Harmeet K. Dhillon of Dhillon Law Group Inc. -- then filed a joint stipulation with the court indicating they were planning to go ahead with a July 14 hearing in the case.

"This is an issue capable of repetition but evading review, which is the standard," Dhillon said. "Even beyond that, the governor has explicitly said that he reserves the right to re-implement any and all of his COVID orders. So that makes it urgent that when and if he does, in the case of this health emergency or a future one, that any such order be narrowly tailored."

Dhillon added the new mask policy is also "likely to be challenged."

The policy announced by the California Department of Public Health requires masks at "any indoor public space," on public transportation and in outdoor public spaces where members of multiple households are present. There are exceptions, for instance for small children and those with certain medical conditions.

The protests against stay-at-home orders have been followed more recently by massive nationwide protests sparked by a police killing in Minneapolis. Those gatherings, and the police response to them, are generating their own wave of litigation.

For instance, on Thursday, an organization called Truth Love Justice announced they were filing claims for damages against the City of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Police Department on behalf of people arrested for violating curfew orders. The group is represented by Los Angeles attorney Sara Azari and John C. Carpenter of Carpenter Zuckerman & Rowley LLP.

Meanwhile, Sacramento attorneys Mark E. Merin and Paul H. Masuhara said they have filed a proposed federal class action against the City of Sacramento and the Sacramento Police Department on behalf of four people who say police shot them with rubber bullets while they were peacefully protesting. Three of them reported serious head injuries, including one who said they underwent "life-saving brain surgery." Phansopha et al. v. City of Sacramento et al., 2:20-cv-01229-WBS-EFB (E.D. Cal., filed June 18, 2020).