Quarantine actually is the same thing as imprisonment, because you can’t leave. You are deprived of liberty. The justification is different, but a justification and $3 would get you a coffee if Starbucks weren’t closed. The US Constitution was written with the understanding that politicians are prone to lying when convenient.
Negligence can be an element of a crime. You need a guilty act and some level of guilty mind (purpose, knowledge, recklessness, or negligence, in declining order of culpability). Walking around isn’t a guilty act. Homicide is a guilty act, but you’d have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant’s actions caused the death. It will be very hard to prove that the victim’s infection came from the defendant and not from any of the large number of other infectious people that are the defining feature of a pandemic.
Endangerment might work, depending on circumstances and jurisdiction, but I would expect courts to be skeptical. Walking around isn’t reckless or wanton, by conventional definitions.
Quarantine actually is the same thing as imprisonment, because you can’t leave. You are deprived of liberty. The justification is different, but a justification and $3 would get you a coffee if Starbucks weren’t closed. The US Constitution was written with the understanding that politicians are prone to lying when convenient.
Negligence can be an element of a crime. You need a guilty act and some level of guilty mind (purpose, knowledge, recklessness, or negligence, in declining order of culpability). Walking around isn’t a guilty act. Homicide is a guilty act, but you’d have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant’s actions caused the death. It will be very hard to prove that the victim’s infection came from the defendant and not from any of the large number of other infectious people that are the defining feature of a pandemic.
Endangerment might work, depending on circumstances and jurisdiction, but I would expect courts to be skeptical. Walking around isn’t reckless or wanton, by conventional definitions.