'Please Remain in Your Seat': The Federal Government's Role in Quarantine   [open pdf - 264KB]

"State health departments or health officials typically have primary quarantine authority. However, the federal government has jurisdiction over foreign and interstate quarantine. Quarantine is the 'the restriction of movement of a healthy person who has been exposed to a communicable disease in order to prevent contact with unexposed persons,' according to a definition favored by an attorney writing for Congressional Research Service. Quarantine is 'separation and restriction of movement of well persons presumed to have been exposed to contagion, according to a definition favored by a Centers for Disease Control quarantine public health officer, who hastens to add that quarantine 'may occur at home or residential facility, and may be voluntary or mandatory.'"