[jeffdavis]

"The best we can do is create systems to help guard against our own mistakes."

Like enforced isolation of some kind? The thing that people have been asking for since the beginning, but is a bad idea for some reason that nobody can explain?

[EliRivers]

Perhaps it's illegal to imprison people who have committed no crime, on the guess that because they were interacting with people who had a disease, they might have it too.

Also, in this case and many like it, imprisoning this man would have been much more expensive than simply testing him for the disease.

There you go; one reason it's a bad idea to imprison someone you think might be carrying ebola is that you can just test their blood and know for sure if they are. Seems a lot cheaper and better all round than imprisoning people.

[dhimes]

Quarantine is not imprisonment, and is certainly not illegal. In fact, it is customary if you, for example, sail a boat from one country to another.

The point here is that it's not clear that there's a reason to enforce a quarantine- yet. But if it becomes clear, then we need to have the balls to do it.

[EliRivers]

Quarantine is not imprisonment

Are they free to leave whenever they wish? No? Sure sounds like imprisonment. Maybe it's for the best, but that doesn't mean it's not imprisonment. It's on the same moral spectrum as conscription and forced labour; the removal of fundamental rights from an individual for the betterment of a great many other people. I'm not saying it shouldn't be done, but it should be recognised that under the social system the country in question (USA) subscribes to, it's a fundamentally evil act.

[DanBC]

Detaining people against their will is the definition of imprisonment.

While not illegal there should be comprehensive legal safeguards around it. And, if it's not illegal, what are the laws that regulate quarantine in the US?

[maxerickson]

CDC has a bunch of information about this:

http://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/index.html

The sub pages are lengthy and cite specific laws and so on.

Skimming, CDC has broad authority to detain travelers and states and local health departments usually have the power to enforce a quarantine (with violation of the quarantine being a misdemeanor).