Are Mandatory Quarantines Legal in the United States?
Amid a growing health crisis surrounding the continued spread of COVID-19, there has been a rising number of instances of travel disruption and quarantine. Cruise ships are forced to stay off the coast for days as officials on shore debate what to do with them. People are being forced into mandatory isolation and quarantine on military bases after reentering the country. Many people do not know when they will be able to go back to their homes. All of this has raised the question, is this legal?
My first reaction to hearing about hundreds of US citizens shipped to military bases around the country, “being placed,” for isolation for two weeks before being allowed to go home was that this could not be legal. It goes against how I usually see America and the West in terms of being able to keep a free and open society in the face of crises. But there are laws in place that dictate government behavior in times like this, and these measures are legal.
In terms of the cruise ships such as the Diamond Princess and the Grand Princess, both of which were held off the coast for days before being allowed to dock, they are being treated as entities trying to enter the United States during a health emergency. The possibility of infectious disease on board gives the federal government a lot of power in how to handle the situation and what to…
