--- title: How Do the Quarantined Maintain Their Civil Rights? description: With more people being detained to defend against the virus, what rights are allotted to the quarantined? canonical: https://time.com/3534724/quarantine-civil-rights-bubonic-plague-ebola/ author: Salima Koroma article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-23T18:53:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-01T09:01:53.250Z article:section: Health og:title: How Do the Quarantined Maintain Their Civil Rights? og:description: With more people being detained to defend against the virus, what rights are allotted to the quarantined? og:url: https://time.com/3534724/quarantine-civil-rights-bubonic-plague-ebola/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt28b42a99720a22b9/69876285cd68486122097492/1280tout.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1280 og:image:height: 720 og:image:alt: What rights are afforded the quarantined og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Do the Quarantined Maintain Their Civil Rights? twitter:description: With more people being detained to defend against the virus, what rights are allotted to the quarantined? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt28b42a99720a22b9/69876285cd68486122097492/1280tout.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # #TheBrief: What Are the Rights of People Quarantined for Ebola? > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=66bdf829-4c38-4678-8f32-78dcdeb54d8e&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: #TheBrief: How the Quarantined Maintain Their Civil Rights [Watch (HLS stream): #TheBrief: How the Quarantined Maintain Their Civil Rights](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/HZ3zgA2i.m3u8) (1:50)  _Published 2014-10-23. A tense waiting game ended this week for family and several others who had come into contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, the first patient to be diagnosed in the U.S. with Ebola and who died of the virus on Oct. 9._ by [Salima Koroma](https://time.com/author/salima-koroma/) and [Ben Goldberger](https://time.com/author/ben-goldberger/) Oct 23, 2014 6:53 PM UTC by [Salima Koroma](https://time.com/author/salima-koroma/) and [Ben Goldberger](https://time.com/author/ben-goldberger/) Oct 23, 2014 6:53 PM UTC A tense waiting game ended this week for family and several others who had come into contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, the first patient to be diagnosed in the U.S. with Ebola and who died of the virus on Oct. 9\. All received a clean bill of health after being closely monitored for signs of infection and kept in isolation for three weeks. But while many in Dallas breathed a sigh of relief, fears sparked anew in New Jersey when an airline passenger showing signs of fever arrived from Liberia, one of the countries hit hardest by the current outbreak, and was sent to a medical center in case he might have contracted Ebola. With more people facing the possibility of detainment as a precaution, it’s important to get all the facts on what it actually means to be quarantined. Watch this brief history on how outbreaks have been handled since the plague days, as well as a primer on what kinds of rights you have while being held and monitored for symptoms. ## Transcript The first wave of Americans who had contact with Ebola patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, were cleared this week. But new fears have since emerged. A man was detained at Newark Airport after getting off a plane from West Africa. With more Americans being isolated, out of fear that they may have had contact with the deadly virus, we need to ask the question, What rights do the quarantined have. I'm Ben Goldberg and this is your breathe. A quarantine is a state of forced isolation used to restrict the movement of those with potentially contagious diseases and isolate them from the healthy. During the height of the Bubonic Plague epidemic in the mid 1300s. Italian sailors established the first form of quarantine. Their ships weren't allowed to land ashore until after 40 days of laying anchor. Those 40 days, or in Italian, quaranta giorni, gave rise to the modern day quarantine. Today, people can isolate themselves voluntarily. Or occasionally they're isolated by force. When the latter happens it spewed questions about the rights of the quarantined. And those questions weren't addressed until 2001 after the highly publicized anthrax attacks in the U. S. that infected 22 people. And killed five. In response to that crisis, congress passed the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act, which made it easier for states to quarantine their citizens, but under two circumstances. One, if the delay in imposing the isolation would significantly jeopardize the public health, and two, if they can identify the individuals being quarantined. This doesn't mean that the quarantined are stripped of all of their rights. They are still able to contest their isolation in the state court, and can claim excessive imprisonment. Of course, a whole new set of challenges crops up when the quarantined end their isolation, and face the stigma of re- entering society. I'm Ben Goldberger, and you've been briefed. 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