Duval County

Local business owner suing City of Jacksonville over mask mandate

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A local business owner named Jason French is suing the City of Jacksonville over its mask mandate.

French, the owner of French Capital Management, said he should not be required to wear a mask.

“Most of my business during the day involves me getting in large rooms with people and explaining to them their options for financial and wealth independence. I need to be able to clearly articulate that to people. And I cannot do that if I have to wear a face mask and they cannot clearly tell me what they are financial goals are if they have to have a face mask,” French said.

Exactly one week ago today, the City of Jacksonville made it a requirement for people to wear masks in public indoor spaces, where social distancing is not possible.

As Action News Jax Courtney Cole reports, French believes wearing a mask is not only interrupting his ability to do his job, but because he does not believe the City has the authority to mandate masks.

“I am brought out here to support America and our freedom!” exclaimed Joe Woodard.

“I’m not a big pro mask, anti-mask. What I don’t like is the government in, a little too strong, telling me what to do,” said Chris Gommlich.

These are just some of the reasons a few dozen gathered at the Duval County Courthouse today for what a group called ReOpen Florida called a Freedom Rally.

They came together this morning to protest the mandate put in place by Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry on Monday, June 29.

The mandate requires people to wear masks in public spaces and indoors where social distancing is not possible.

“The City of Jacksonville has chosen to enact an unlawful unconstitutional proclamation to mandate that people wear masks,” said Anthony Sabatini.

Sabatini is the Florida State Representative for District 32 and he’s also an attorney.

He attended the rally and announced the lawsuit his client, French, is bringing against the City of Jacksonville.

“Now I’m not against face masks. If you want to have a face mask on, that’s fine you can go ahead and have it. But it should be our option to wear face mask if we so deem,” French said.

While the City is not enforcing the mask mandate with any repercussions, Sabatini contends that a violation of an executive proclamation during an emergency, legally speaking, could result in 60 days of jail time.

In his Facebook post, he says quote: “Elected officials in the City claim that violations of the “proclamation may not be enforced, but clearly they have not read their own code of ordinances. A violation of an executive proclamation during an emergency is a class D offense, which is a second-degree misdemeanor.”

“It’s an absolutely terrible policy, it’s vaguely written, it’s hard to implement and it’s accompanied by this atrocious punishment. It violates the due process clause of the Florida constitution, it violates the privacy of the Florida constitution, it violates the equal protection clause of the Florida constitution and most of all, it’s not even allowed per the own court of ordinances,” Sabatini said.

When Action News Jax Courtney Cole reached out to the City for their response, they sent this response via email, saying in part:

“At a time our City is facing not only a public health crisis, but severe budgetary constraints as a result of the virus, an elected official filing a lawsuit that will further strain taxpayers resources seems irresponsible. As we do with all Executive Orders, we worked closely with our Office of General Counsel to ensure compliance with applicable laws,”said Jordan Elsbury, Chief of Staff.

Sabatini and French say they either want to see the proclamation changed, or go back to wearing masks as a recommendation and not a requirement.

Action News Jax will continue to follow the developments on the mandate and update you on any changes.