Oklahoma Supreme Court Rejects Call for Mandatory Masks at T
Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2020 4:31 pmThe Oklahoma Supreme Court rejected a request to require everyone attending President Donald Trump's campaign rally Saturday in Tulsa to wear face masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
The state court ruled Friday that several local residents who made the request for all rally attendees to wear face masks could not establish they a had clear legal right to seek such a mandate.
The Trump campaign said organizers would be providing masks and hand sanitizer to all who want them. Organizers will be checking the temperature of all attendees to guard against the spread of the virus. The campaign said it is taking "safety seriously" as some health experts have warned that the large gathering could promote the spread of the coronavirus.
Supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump camp near the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 19, 2020.
The managers of the Bank of Oklahoma Center, the indoor multipurpose arena in Tulsa where the rally will take place, have asked the president's campaign for a written health and safety plan. BOK Center officials said they requested the plan because Tulsa has experienced a recent increase in coronavirus cases.
The arena has seats for 19,000 people, and the Trump campaign says more than a million people have sought tickets.
Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum says crowds of 100,000 or more people are expected in the area around the rally.
Bynum declared a civil emergency and set an overnight curfew for the area around the arena, citing the unrest that followed some of the recent protests across the country against police brutality.
However, Trump tweeted Friday that he spoke to Bynum and there would not be a curfew.
The mayor's office originally said the curfew would remain in effect from 10 p.m. Friday until 6 a.m. Saturday and would again be in force on Saturday night.
Bynum said in his order, "I have received information from the Tulsa Police Department and other law enforcement agencies that shows that individuals from organized groups who have been involved in destructive and violent behavior in other states are planning to travel to the City of Tulsa for purposes of causing unrest in and around the rally." Bynum did not identify the groups to which he was referring.
Trump tweeted on Friday, "Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis. It will be a much different scene!"
A White House spokeswoman, Kayleigh McEnany, said Trump was referring to violent protesters, not peaceful ones.
The Tulsa rally was originally scheduled for Friday but was pushed back a day after criticism that it fell on Juneteenth, which marks the end of slavery in the United States, and takes place in a city where racial killings occurred in 1921 that left several hundred African Americans dead.
It is Trump's first major reelection event since a coronavirus shutdown across much of the country and recent nationwide protests sparked by the death of African American George Floyd while in the custody of white police officers in Minneapolis last month.