AIDS and Quarantine in the United States

It has been held that such intrusions are levelheaded if they are conducted for the purpose of protecting the public from the spread of disease.

On the other hand, a national district court lately struck down the requirement for mandatory AIDS examen of state employees of a residential agency providing services for the mentally retarded. Although the agency justified the regulation as an administrative form designed to promote a safe environment for twain the employees and the patients, the court found that the employees' privacy interest in their fund outweighed the state's interest. The court specifically said that since there is no demonstrate that AIDS can be transmitted either by casual contact or via biting and scratching, straining as a means of preventing the spread of AIDS in this stain was not a reasonable search.

Under the Equal rampart clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, states cannot make or enforce each law which denies equal protection of the laws to any person. In rule to determine if a law violates the Equal Protection clause, a court must ascertain the governmental objective. If the objective comes

As with mandatory testing, the power to isolate is derived from the states' police powers. Again, the states are only limited by federal preemption and constitutional guarantees of certain substantive and procedural various(prenominal) rights. With regards to preemption, the federal government has so far only elect to regulate the quarantine of individuals with regards to the entry of diseased individuals into the U.S., the movement of give individuals between states, and the protection of military personnel during times of war.

In re Clemente, 61 Cal. App. 666, 215 P. 698 (1923).

All of these limitations on the state governments too apply to the federal government. Under the general welfare grooming of Article I, ?

8, the federal government has police powers similar to those of the states; it excessively is subject to equal protection and due ferment considerations chthonic the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment. Although there is no equal protection clause in the Fifth Amendment the summary of the Fourteenth Amendment cases has been applied to the federal government. Thus, while Congress could conceivably enact a provision which quarantines those with AIDS, such an enactment would believably have to pass a strict scrutiny test under both equal protection and due process challenges.

The Supreme Court has said that the fundamental right of privacy declare oneselfs to only child-rearing and education, family relationships, procreation, marriage, contraception, and abortion. This means that a quarantine of AIDS carriers would in all likelihood not affect the right to privacy, for the Court in Bowers refused to extend the right to privacy to include consensual sexual relations. It whitethorn infringe upon a privacy right through the barrier of the individuals interest in freedom from bodily restraint, although this has not been expressly considered a privacy interest by the Supreme Court.

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