Does US President Have Legal Authority to Quarantine States/Cities?

a reply to: SleeperHasAwakened

He can only regulate/limit the travel of infected people or those reasonably believed to be infected.

NOTE:

I intentionally put this thread in "Above Politics"; let's try to think about this in the hypothetical, rather than bashing former or current occupants of the White House.

I'm not an lawyer; I don't even play one on TV. The one thing that strikes me is how complex and open to interpretation that some of these issues can be. I guess if it were easy, anyone could become a constitutional attorney and make lots of money off of book deals and speaking engagements.

I think someone earlier in the thread alluded to the idea that Pres Trump could have proceeded with the quarantine, but it may not have held up under legal scrutiny, and even if it did, it'd spark a major legal debate that our country just doesn't need right now. In any event, it's probably best to leave issues like this for states to manage.

The one word that came to mind when I heard that the quarantine was on the table: panic. My opinion is that avoidance of inciting more public fear also played into this.

originally posted by: Identified
Not really.

The President has authority to limit travel between States and to of course stop Air Travel and travel from other nations. But he really can't force people to stay indoors or tell cities and States how to react. That is a State Right and even they are limited in what they may Constitutionally do.

There is quite a bit of attempting to bend the laws and Constitution going on right now and people are allowing things to slide under the guise of *safety and security."

I suspect Trump backed down on his NYC quarantine idea because some Constitutional lawyers schooled him.

An excellent article that explains this:

www.theatlantic.com...

Nothing printed by the Atlantic is excellent

a reply to: MotherMayEye



" reasonably believed to be infected. " ...............Brilliant Observation ! WHO Decides that Exactly ...AGAIN > ? ....Hmm.....