Nevada Legislature
- A Republican lawmaker refused to wear her mask on the assembly floor of Nevada's state legislature.
- Only fully vaccinated lawmakers don't have to wear masks. Annie Black refuses to say if she's been vaccinated.
- Democrat assembly members voted to strip her of voting and speaking privileges until she apologizes.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
A Republican lawmaker has been stripped of her voting and speaking privileges in Nevada's state legislature after taking part in an anti-mask stunt on Tuesday, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Annie Black, a member of the Nevada Assembly, ripped her face covering off while on the assembly floor, the Review-Journal said. She then said refused to put it back on and falsely claimed that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had said that masks are no longer required, the paper added.
In fact, the CDC guidance says that only fully vaccinated Americans can go maskless in most settings. Black refuses to say whether she has been vaccinated, Raw Story said.
The next day, Black returned to the floor without a mask. The assembly's Democrat majority leader, Teresa Benitez-Thompson, raised a point of order and accused Black of breaking new legislative protocols, the Review-Journal reported.
This led to a vote which stripped Black of her voting and speaking privileges, the paper said.
Read more: Don't be a jerk about COVID reopening, whether you want to move slow or fast
Black is barred from speaking or voting unless she apologizes for her conduct - but this seems unlikely.
"Trust me, this ain't over," she wrote in a newsletter to her followers on Thursday.
"I will not back down," she wrote on Twitter on Friday.
-Assemblywoman Annie Black (@RealAnnieBlack) May 21, 2021
Later that day, she retweeted a post referring to the "Nazis running the Nevada Legislature."