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By Josh Larkin, Staff Writer
As the spread of COVID-19, otherwise known as the Coronavirus, continues across the nation, many citizens are concerned about the idea of being forced to stay in their homes for an extended period. This concern causes many to wonder, can the federal government impose a national quarantine and restrict citizens to confined spaces? The simple answer is yes, the government may quarantine or isolate citizens to stop the spread of a virus or infectious disease, but what allows the government to do this?
The first concept to understand in this situation is the legal difference between an isolation and a quarantine. An isolation is the separation of people known or suspected to be infected with a communicable disease from those who are not sick to prevent the transmission of the disease. [1] A quarantine is the compulsory separation, including the restriction of movement, of people who have been potentially exposed to a communicable disease, until it is determined whether they have contracted the disease or no longer pose a risk of transmission to others. [2]
The federal government derives its authority to isolate and quarantine citizens from the Commerce Clause of the Constitution of the United States, and by Executive Order of the President. [3] Section 361 of the Public Health Service Act (41 U.S.C. § 264) allows the Secretary of Health and Human Services to take action to prevent the entry and spread of contagious diseases. [4] This includes preventing diseases from entering within the country, as well as preventing the spread between states. [5] However, this authority has also been delegated to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”). [6] The CDC is authorized to detain and medically examine those who are travelling into the country, or between states, that are suspected of carrying communicable diseases. [7]
While this is a trending story in the media today, this is not the first time the federal government has discussed the idea of regulating activities or quarantining citizens. In 1824, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall addressed this issue in Gibbons v. Ogden. [8] Chief Justice Marshall distinguished the federal and state governments’ abilities to regulate activities within and between states. [9] Marshall’s reasoning set the precedent that “police powers” are reserved to the states with a few exceptions for the federal government. [10] These police powers include functions to protect the health, safety, and welfare of citizens within the state’s borders, which includes the ability to control the spread of disease and enforce the use of isolation and quarantine. [11] For most citizens, this means a state or local quarantine may play a more significant role in determining whether citizens are forced to remain indoors than one imposed by the federal government. [12] For example, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has suggested the Pennsylvania stay-at-home order may last longer than April 30, 2020, [13] while President Trump’s may last until April 30, 2020. [14]
Federal and state governments do not implement a quarantine or isolation unless it is the last resort with no other preferable means to stop the spread of the virus or disease. [15] However, when dealing with COVID-19, the CDC has already ordered Americans flying home after visiting mainland China, Italy or Iran to fly into one of the eleven major U.S. airports so that they may be screened for the virus. [16] As previously discussed, these implementations are enforced by law, which includes law enforcement officers from U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Coast Guard. [17] If an individual were to go against such a quarantine order, it shall be considered a criminal misdemeanor in most states, which may be punished with fines and imprisonment. [18] Pennsylvania has become one such state that has begun citing citizens for disobeying the stay-at-home order. [19] However, citizens still have rights in quarantine and isolation under the Fifth Amendment [20] and the Fourteenth Amendment. [21] These Amendments require public health regulations used to impose isolation and quarantine to not be “arbitrary, oppressive and unreasonable.” [22]
The federal government’s implementation of large-scale isolation and quarantine is rarely used, with the last enforcement in 1918 and 1919 during the Spanish Flu pandemic. [23] Current authorizations for federally enforced isolation and quarantine include cholera, diphtheria, infectious tuberculosis, plague, smallpox, yellow fever, viral hemorrhagic fevers, severe acute respiratory syndromes and any flu that can cause a pandemic. [24] While there has been no national quarantine for COVID-19, the Department of Defense has recently halted all domestic travel for service members of the Armed Forces until May 11, 2020. [25] President Trump has also recently announced that travelers from several countries have been temporarily restricted from entering the United States, including China, the United Kingdom, all of Europe, Iran, and South Korea. [26]
While this is still an ongoing issue with no national quarantine imposed yet, the President has recently announced that stopping the spread of COVID-19 may take up to August 2020. [27] That means there is still plenty of time for local, state or federal quarantines to be enforced, making it all the more important that citizens know their rights during this time.
[1] https://www.ncsl.org/research/health/state-quarantine-and-isolation-statutes.aspx
[2] Id.
[3] https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/aboutlawsregulationsquarantineisolation.html
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] Id.
[7] Id.
[8] Gibbons v. Ogden, 22 U.S. 1 (1824)
[9] https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/constitutional-powers-and-issues-during-a-quarantine-situation
[10] Id.
[11] https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/aboutlawsregulationsquarantineisolation.html
[12] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/12/us/coronavirus-quarantine-questions.html
[13] https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2020/04/06/wolf-on-extension-of-stay-at-home-order-beyond.html
[14] https://www.inquirer.com/health/coronavirus/trump-extends-virus-guidelines-braces-us-big-death-toll-20200329.html
[15] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/12/us/coronavirus-quarantine-questions.html
[16] Id.
[17] https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/aboutlawsregulationsquarantineisolation.html
[18] Id.
[19] https://triblive.com/news/pennsylvania/state-troopers-cite-pa-woman-for-going-for-a-drive-amid-stay-at-home-order/
[20] U.S. Const. Amend. V
[21] U.S. Const. Amend. XIV
[22] https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/constitutional-powers-and-issues-during-a-quarantine-situation
[23] https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/aboutlawsregulationsquarantineisolation.html
[24] Id.
[25] https://www.defense.gov/Explore/News/Article/Article/2112575/dod-officials-explain-new-coronavirus-domestic-travel-restrictions/
[26] https://www.foxnews.com/world/coronavirus-us-travel-restrictions-countries
[27] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/16/trump-coronavirus-guidelines-press-conference
