Face Mask Mandate is NOT State Law
Most Mainers Don’t Really Understand Governor Mills’ Face Mask Executive Order
By: David Deschesne
Fort Fairfield Journal, May 20, 2020
To walk around in public in Maine, one will find over half of the people both maintaining a social distance of 6 feet or more and wearing a face mask. Some of them are wearing face masks while walking all alone in a desolate parking lot or driving around in their cars with their windows rolled up. Some businesses are mandating face masks in their stores even if social distancing is adequately taking place.
There seems to be a blatant misunderstanding of Governor Mills’ most recent executive order 49FY 19/20. The paragraph from her Executive Order that mandates face masks reads as follows:
V. Cloth Face Coverings
Consistent with guidance from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention individuals must wear cloth face coverings in public settings where other physical distancing measures are difficult to maintain.
A plain reading of that paragraph says that face masks must be worn in public where social distancing (of 6 feet or more) cannot be done. So, as long as you’re six feet apart or more, the Executive Order does not mandate the use of a cloth face mask.
Furthermore, the Executive Order goes on in subparagraph B to allow for an exemption for children under 2 years of age and for anyone who has trouble breathing or related medical conditions, or is unable to remove the mask without assistance. It also states, “A person who cannot wear a cloth face covering because of a medical condition is not required to produce medical documentation of the condition.” However, it does allow an employer to require such documentation for employees if so desired.
According to England’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Jenny Harries, it is not a good idea for the general public to be forced to wear face masks in perpetuity anyway, because most have not received the proper training in maintenance and cleanliness and the often dirty, reused masks will end up trapping virus particles that will ultimately be breathed back in by the wearer causing a greater viral load than they would have had without the mask.
However, this whole exercise may be moot. Governor Mills’ face mask mandate is only an executive order, it is not a State Law since it was never passed by the legislature.
According to Black’s Law Dictionary, 7th Ed., an Executive Order is an order issued by the President, [or a State’s Governor] “that is intended to direct or instruct the actions of executive agencies or government officials, or to set policies for the executive branch to follow.”
In Maine, that means executive orders apply to employees of the Maine State Police, Warden’s Service, DHHS, Bureau of Motor Vehicles and other agencies that fall under the control of the Governor’s office (the Executive branch). In this respect, members of the general public, Sheriff Deputies and others who are not part of the Executive Department of Maine State government, or receive some privilege from it, are not beholden to those executive orders. Businesses who do receive some sort of grant or license from the State usually will have to follow an executive order or stand the chance of losing that license or privilege to do business.