By Devon Link
Fact-Check Intern
USA Today
After several failed efforts to use the ADA, HIPAA and the Fourth and Fifth Amendments to fight mask mandates, those opposed to masks are adding a new tool to their arsenal: the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
YouTuber Nathan Roberts explored the effectiveness of employing this law to argue for a religious exemption from mask mandates in a video July 22.
“Anything that’s open to the public for public accommodation has got to abide by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, not to discriminate, based on many different things, including religion,” Roberts said. “Religion meaning that if you, or your religious conviction, believe that you shouldn’t be wearing a mask, that’s all you have to have.”
Roberts tested his argument in a Georgia Kroger store. An employee asked Roberts to think of other customers and obey the mask policy before her manager told Roberts the store did not discriminate.
“You don’t know the law, so enjoy your shopping,” Roberts told a shopper.
In the video’s description, Roberts urged viewers to employ religious exemptions and shared links to forms that customers and employees can use to report stores to the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.
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Harvard Law School professor Noah Feldman, who specializes in constitutional studies, with an emphasis on law and religion, said the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does not grant individuals religious mask exemptions.
“The government can’t discriminate against you on the basis of your religion, but it doesn’t appear to be discriminating against you here by telling you to wear a mask,” Feldman told USA TODAY. “Contrary to what this card is saying, federal law cannot get you an exemption from a neutral, generally applicable state law.”