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Legal expert says Cuomo’s quarantine order likely to stand up to legal scrutiny

Arriving travelers walk by a sign in the baggage claim area of Terminal B on June 25, 2020, at LaGuardia Airport in New York. New York, Connecticut and New Jersey are asking visitors from states with high coronavirus infection rates to quarantine for 14 days.

(The Center Square) – Legal experts don’t think Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s quarantine order for travelers who arrive in New York from a growing list of states would be ruled unconstitutional if challenged.

Eric Freedman, an expert on U.S. constitutional law at the Hofstra University Maurice A. Deane School of Law, recently told Newsday the order does not violate the U.S. constitution because “it’s based on objective criteria related to disease.”

In other words, the order doesn’t prevent travelers from an arbitrary list of states from coming to New York. Instead, the list of states that New York expects its travelers to self-isolate for 14 days upon arrival changes based on a frequent review of infection rates. States are added to the list if their test positivity rate is over 10 percent and removed if they are under.

The order, which went into effect on June 25, started with eight states identified as high-risk, visit heroin.net/. Since then, another 15 states have been added and one, Delaware, has been removed.

Visitors caught violating the order would be fined $2,000 for their first violation, but that fine can increase to $10,000 if they caused harm.

“I think [Cuomo’s] trying to discourage people from coming here,” Assemblyman Michael Montesano, R-Glen Head, told Newsday. He supports the quarantine but called enforcement a “logistical nightmare.”

Cuomo’s administration had initially hoped that many people would comply voluntarily after being informed about the quarantine. Airlines, for example, have been passing out contact forms and informational flyers about the quarantine to passengers arriving in New York. On Monday, however, Cuomo announced that handing over the forms is now mandatory.

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