There is no Georgia mask mandate in effect in 2026. The state never imposed a statewide requirement with penalties during the pandemic, and Governor Brian Kemp’s executive orders have blocked local governments from adopting mask requirements since August 2021. At the same time, Georgia has a decades-old criminal statute that makes wearing a face covering illegal in some situations, so the rules around masks in Georgia are more layered than the absence of a mandate suggests.
Georgia’s Anti-Mask Law Still Applies
Under O.C.G.A. § 16-11-38, wearing a mask, hood, or any device that hides your face with the intent to conceal your identity is a misdemeanor when you are on public property or on someone else’s private property without permission.1Justia Law. Georgia Code 16-11-38 – Wearing Mask, Hood, or Device Which Conceals Identity The statute originally targeted groups like the Ku Klux Klan and has been on the books for decades.
The pandemic created an obvious conflict with that statute, and the legislature fixed it in 2021 by adding an explicit health exception. You cannot be convicted under the anti-mask law for wearing a face covering to comply with guidance from any healthcare agency or provider to prevent the spread of COVID-19, other coronaviruses, influenza, or other infectious diseases.1Justia Law. Georgia Code 16-11-38 – Wearing Mask, Hood, or Device Which Conceals Identity That carve-out is permanent. If you wear a mask in public for health reasons, you are protected, mandate or no mandate. The intent element also matters: the crime requires an intent to conceal identity, so routine mask-wearing without that purpose does not fit the statute in the first place.
Why No City or County Can Require Masks
Georgia’s constitution gives municipalities broad home rule authority, and O.C.G.A. § 36-35-3 lets them adopt ordinances on local matters without needing specific permission from the General Assembly.2Justia Law. Georgia Code 36-35-3 – Adoption of Ordinances, Resolutions by Governing Body of Municipality Home rule has limits, though. Local ordinances cannot conflict with general state law, and O.C.G.A. § 36-35-6 lists areas where the General Assembly has preempted local action.3Justia Law. Georgia Code 36-35-6 – Limitations on Home Rule Powers
During 2020, several cities including Atlanta, Savannah, and Decatur relied on their home rule authority to adopt local mask requirements. Governor Kemp’s executive orders invoked O.C.G.A. § 38-3-28(a), which allows local emergency orders but prohibits them from being inconsistent with the governor’s own directives. The governor’s position was that local mask mandates were inconsistent with his statewide guidance, which only encouraged mask-wearing rather than requiring it. The cities disagreed.
The dispute reached the courthouse in July 2020 when Kemp sued the City of Atlanta and Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, seeking to block Atlanta’s mandatory mask ordinance. The case never produced a ruling on the merits. Kemp withdrew the lawsuit in August 2020, so the underlying question of whether home rule powers let a Georgia city go further than the state on public health has never been settled by a court. In August 2021, the governor issued a new executive order explicitly prohibiting local governments from imposing mask requirements, and that preemption remains in place.
What a Future Mandate Would Look Like
If a new public health crisis prompted mask requirements in Georgia, the authority would almost certainly come from the Georgia Emergency Management Act rather than the state’s general public health statutes. Under O.C.G.A. § 38-3-51, the governor can declare a state of emergency and exercise broad powers to respond, but those powers have built-in limits.4Justia Law. Georgia Code 38-3-51 – Emergency Powers of Governor No emergency declaration can last longer than 30 days without renewal. The General Assembly can terminate any declaration at any time by concurrent resolution. A public health emergency declaration also triggers a mandatory call for a special legislative session, which must convene within two days.
Those checks shape what the state can actually do. A governor can issue a mask directive quickly, but keeping it in place requires either repeated renewals or legislative acquiescence. The statewide COVID-era orders followed that pattern of recurring short-term renewals rather than a single open-ended rule.
The same emergency powers framework decides whether cities can impose stricter rules. As long as the governor’s order either requires or forbids a particular local measure, O.C.G.A. § 38-3-28(a) blocks local governments from going a different direction. If the governor stays silent on masks in a future emergency, the home rule argument the cities made in 2020 would be available again, and still untested.
If a Business or Employer Requires a Mask
Even without a government mandate, private businesses and employers in Georgia can require masks on their own premises. If you cannot wear one, you have legal protections to ask for an accommodation.
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, businesses and government agencies must consider reasonable modifications to a mask policy for people whose disabilities prevent them from wearing a face covering.5U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Laws A business can refuse only if the modification would create an undue hardship or if the individual poses a direct threat to health or safety that cannot be reduced through accommodation. The direct threat standard is deliberately high, requiring a significant risk of substantial harm.
Religious objections are handled under different law. The First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause protects sincerely held religious beliefs, and in the workplace, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act requires employers to accommodate religious practices unless doing so creates an undue hardship.5U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Laws An employer may offer alternatives like remote work, physical barriers, or a modified schedule rather than simply waiving the mask rule.
Employees who together raise safety concerns about workplace mask policies may also be engaged in protected concerted activity under the National Labor Relations Act, which protects workers who act collectively to address working conditions.6National Labor Relations Board. Concerted Activity
Masks as a Deductible Medical Expense
One pandemic-era rule has outlasted the mandates. The IRS has ruled that masks and other personal protective equipment purchased to prevent the spread of COVID-19 qualify as deductible medical expenses, and the same costs can be reimbursed through health savings accounts, flexible spending arrangements, and health reimbursement arrangements.7Internal Revenue Service. IR-2021-66 – Face Masks and Other Personal Protective Equipment to Prevent the Spread of COVID-19 Are Tax Deductible
The deduction on your tax return only helps if your total qualifying medical costs exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income, which is a high bar for most people.8Internal Revenue Service. Publication 502 – Medical and Dental Expenses HSA and FSA eligibility is more broadly useful because those accounts let you pay for masks with pre-tax dollars regardless of that threshold. The IRS guidance refers specifically to PPE purchased for the purpose of preventing COVID-19, so similar treatment in a future outbreak would depend on new guidance.