The 2022 Florida Statutes (including 2022 Special Session A and 2023 Special Session B)
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We note that by statute, wearing a mask has been made a misdemeanor of the second degree under certain circumstances. See generally §§ 876.12—.20, Fla. Stat. (2001). For example, section 876.12 criminalizes wearing a mask or hood on a public way; section 876.13 criminalizes the wearing of a hood or mask on public property; and section 876.14 makes it illegal to wear a hood or mask on the property of another. These statutes, which were first passed in the 1950's, were apparently aimed at the Ku Klux Klan. The Florida Supreme Court found one of these statutes (all of which are virtually identical) unconstitutional in Robinson v. State, 393 So.2D 1076 (Fla. 1980) (holding that statute criminalizing wearing hood of mask on public property was overbroad, and exceptions provided by section 876.16 were not sufficient to cure this fatal overbreadth, nor were the statutory words susceptible of any limiting construction). The legislature apparently attempted to cure these problems in 1981, by the passage of section 876.155m Florida Statutes, which limits the application of these statutes.Without speculating on whether the statute is intended to apply to any core activities which the legislature has an interest in preventing, we find that this law is susceptible of application to entirely innocent activities. It is susceptible of being applied so as to create prohibitions that completely lack any rational basis. The exceptions provided by section 876.16, Florida Statutes (1977), are not sufficient to cure this fatal overbreadth.. . . criminalizing wearing hood or mask on public property was overbroad, and exceptions provided by section 876.16 . . .
. . . The exceptions provided by section 876.16, Florida Statutes (1977), are not sufficient to cure this fatal . . .