Two Colorado House of Representatives candidates on Friday filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court alleging Gov. Jared Polis and others are violating their civil rights by ordering Colorado residents to wear face masks.

In a news release, Mark Milliman of Boulder County and Donna Walter of Larimer County argue that recent masking orders, which have been introduced as Colorado grapples with a rise in COVID-19 cases, are in fact efforts to compel political speech.

“The First and Fourteenth Amendments protect against compelled speech,” the release states. “Forcing already struggling businesses to enforce compelled speech mandates is worse because it exposes them to potential liability under federal civil rights statutes.”

“It’s about political principles like free speech, rule of law, and much more,” Walter said in the same release. “The government can’t force us to scare each other to death.”

Boulder County Public Health executive director Jeff Zayach, Larimer County public health director Tom Gonzales and Fort Collins City Manager Darin Atteberry are named as defendants in the suit alongside Polis.

Both counties and the city of Fort Collins have introduced rules requiring individuals to wear masks in public to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Face masks work by blocking respiratory droplets — microscopic amounts of moisture that may contain active coronavirus virions or other pathogens — from traveling through the air and spreading disease.

The efficacy of mask-wearing is supported by a growing body of research, and the use of masks is encouraged, among other precautions, by the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, and other agencies.

In their release, recent orders are characterized as primarily political, and Milliman and attorney Mark Patlan dismiss masks as “ineffective.”

When reached for comment on Friday, representatives of both county health departments pushed back against statements made in the release about the use of masks, including an assertion by attorney Mark Patlan that asymptomatic transmission is “extremely rare at worst.”

“We know that’s not the case,” Larimer County health department spokeswoman Katie O’Donnell said.

Boulder County health department spokeswoman Chana Goussetis defended her county’s face covering order as “an effective and necessary tool when used in conjunction with other prevention actions such as social distancing and regular handwashing and the response activities of testing and prompt disease investigation, including contact tracing.”

Atteberry declined to comment, saying he had not yet seen the complaint in the case, and a representative for Polis did not respond to an email that included the release.

According to the release, Walter and Milliman are seeking “declaratory relief to declare mask mandates for the healthy to be unlawful compelled speech, and injunctive relief to halt enforcement of unlawful mask mandates that expose private businesses to financial liability.”

Milliman, a Republican, is running to unseat Democrat Karen McCormick in House District 11, while Walter, also a Republican, is running against Democrat Cathy Kipp in House District 52.