We welcome Nassau legislators advancing a bill Monday that bars wearing a face mask or covering in public in the county to conceal one’s identity and subjects violators to a misdemeanor charge with a fine of up to $1,000.

The ban follows a national trend spurred in part by the difficulty masks have posed in prosecuting demonstrators against the war in Gaza who camped out on college campuses and violated the law.

Masks worn by Jan. 6 protesters who stormed the U.S. Capitol in 2020 in a bid to overturn the presidential election results have raised similar concerns.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, announced last month she was considering a similar ban on face masks in the New York City subway system, citing recent incidents of antisemitic harassment.

In one case, some protesters wearing traditional Palestinian scarves, known as keffiyehs, over their faces were seen on video asking whether any passengers aboard a crowded subway were Zionists, telling them: “This is your chance to get out.”

Hochul said she was in talks with state lawmakers to consider a ban.

The proposed Nassau ban, of which county Legislator Mazi Melesa Pilip (R-Great Neck) is the lead sponsor, could like other bans be subject to abuse by law enforcement.

The legislation wisely targets people who wear facial coverings to intentionally conceal their identity and would exempt people who wear masks for health, safety, “religious or cultural purposes, or for the peaceful celebration of a holiday or similar religious or cultural event for which masks or facial coverings are customarily worn.”

Still, some questions remain about the legislation

Minority Leader Delia DeRiggi-Whitton (D-Glen Cove), who said she generally supported the proposal, questioned the threat of prosecution for wearing masks during especially cold days during winter.

Critics of other bans around the country also see the potential to quell protests and violate people’s First Amendment right to assemble.

Those concerns should be addressed. Nassau County could start by making cases of police misconduct far more transparent. The county has been called among the least transparent in the nation.

But there is a real need for the legislation as inadvertently expressed recently by both state Sen. Jack Martins (R-Old Westbury) and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

In an op-ed that appeared in Blank Slate Media June 27, Martins called for the removal from office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democratic elected by the people of New York City.

The reason?

Bragg’s dismissal of 31 of the 46 cases against protesters who briefly occupied Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall in April, a climax of the movement of student encampments protesting Israel’s military actions against Hamas.

Martins correctly pointed out the protesters had occupied and damaged school buildings, disrupted classes and commencement and chanted “pro-terrorist, anti-Jewish and anti-American hatred for the world to hear.”

The state senator said Bragg’s decision not to prosecute was part of a trend and called him “an ideological demagogue shilling a political agenda.”

Unsaid was whether Bragg’s successful prosecution of former President Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s nominee in the 2024 presidential election, played a part in Martin’s criticism.

A New York jury found Trump guilty of all 34 charges in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through a hush money payment to a porn actor who said the two had sex.

Cuomo said much the same as Martins in an op-ed criticizing Bragg published by The Forward.

He said Manhattan’s first Black district attorney had “done a disservice to the residents of New York City, who deserve a justice system that is willing to pursue cases even when they are difficult — and, dare I say it, may not align with the ideology of the prosecutor.”

Cuomo, who also called Bragg’s prosecution of Trump political, suggested Hochul should weaken the DA’s prosecutorial powers and appoint a special prosecutor to investigate hate crimes.

A group of influential Black New York leaders correctly condemned Cuomo for criticizing Bragg over his handling of Columbia University protest cases while “mysteriously” ignoring similar charging decisions by white prosecutors across the state.

“We were so surprised, disappointed, and angered by your recent op-ed on antisemitism that singled out for criticism Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, the first Black person to hold this prestigious position,” the leaders said in the letter.

On June 22, Bragg said he dropped the prosecution of the 31 Columbia protesters because his office had little proof that the cases would stand up at trial.

A spokesman for the district attorney explained that there was limited video footage of what took place inside the campus building because protesters covered security cameras – and they wore masks.

Apart from trespassing, a misdemeanor, proving any other criminal charges would be “extremely difficult,” said the spokesman, Doug Cohen.

This is a common practice for prosecutors in New York City.

“Under Cyrus Vance Jr., the former Manhattan district attorney, 680 cases against the 732 people arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge during the Occupy Wall Street protests in 2011 were dropped,” The New York Times recently reported. “Roughly 5,000 police summonses issued during the citywide Black Lives Matter marches in 2020 were also dismissed under Mr. Vance.”

So, rather than criticizing or even trying to oust Bragg, we would be better served by making it easier to prosecute people who violate the law.

The mask legislation advanced by the county is a good start.