法律英语：109 Quarantine Law

by Michael W. Flynn

First, a disclaimer: Although I am an attorney, the legal information in this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for seeking personalized legal advice from an attorney licensed 1 to practice in your jurisdiction 2. Further, I do not intend to create an attorney-client relationship with any listener.

Today’s topic is the government’s power to quarantine. In light of Andrew Speaker’s recent quarantine for a resistant 3 strain of tuberculosis 4, several listeners have written asking whether such a quarantine is legal.

The short answer is that the government at the local, state and federal levels does, in fact, have the power to quarantine people who pose a public health risk.

The practice of quarantine began during the 14th century in an effort to protect coastal 5 cities from plague epidemics 6. Ships arriving in Venice from infected ports were required to sit at anchor for 40 days before landing. This practice, called quarantine, derived 7 from the Italian quaranta giorni, which means 40 days.

Today, states and local governments have broad authority under their general police powers to preserve public health. This includes closing restaurants that do not comply with health regulations and quarantining individuals with highly infectious diseases. In some states, such as Louisiana, local officials need a court order to take a person into custody 8 for all but a few diseases. In others, local health officials are empowered to detain individuals in a hospital or prison who show symptoms of specific diseases such as cholera 9, yellow fever, typhoid fever, or tuberculosis. State quarantine laws also allow officials to impose limited quarantines. For example, a chef infected with hepatitis might be barred from preparing or serving food in a restaurant, but would remain otherwise free to live his life.

Under the Constitution, the federal government’s powers are generally limited to interstate activity and international activity. Under the Public Health Service Act, “[t]he Surgeon General, with the approval of the Secretary [of Health and Human Services], is authorized 10 to make and enforce such regulations as in his judgment 11 are necessary to prevent the introduction, transmission, or spread of communicable diseases from foreign countries.” This power is limited to controlling those diseases that are “specified from time to time in Executive orders of the President upon the recommendation of the Secretary, in consultation 12 with the Surgeon General.”

Currently, the list of diseases includes cholera, diphtheria, infectious tuberculosis, plague, smallpox 13, yellow fever, viral hemorrhagic fevers, SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), and certain kinds of dangerous influenza 14 that are causing or have the potential to cause a pandemic. So, the federal government has the power to detain a person who has one of these diseases.

In Andrew Speaker’s case, he had a kind of infectious tuberculosis, and he was trying to enter the country from abroad, so the federal government had the right to detain and medically examine him. If Mr. Speaker is found to have violated federal quarantine laws, he could be subject to up to a $1000 fine and a sentence of up to one year in jail. Violating quarantine laws could include ignoring a quarantine order or leaving a hospital after being quarantined, but before treatment was completed. Mr. Speaker might also face tort liability if he infected other people on a flight, and he knew or should have known he had an infectious disease.

The law is less clear on exactly how long the government can detain an individual, and what kind of treatment it can force a person to undergo. However, it seems that the government may do almost anything that is necessary to ensure that the infected person will not pose a health risk to others.

Thank you for listening to Legal Lad’s Quick and Dirty Tips for a More Lawful 15 Life. Be sure to check out all the excellent Quick and Dirty Tips podcasts at QuickAndDirtyTips.com.

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