The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- Louisiana
- Level
- State
- Authority
- La. Const. art. III; police power of the State; Acts 1976, No. 346, sec. 1, as amended
- Issued
- 2025-01-01 Jan. 1, 2025
- Effective
- standing throughout 2020 Q2 to 2021 Q3 (read as 2025-01-01)
- End
- standing
- In force
- Standing since Jan. 1, 2025 (a statutory duty; in force throughout the six quarters)
- Quarters
- 2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Emergency declarationBusiness closureQuarantine and isolationStanding duty
- Addressees
- persons generally; owners or persons in control of premises; food establishments; public and private buildings where people congregate; the state health officer (as the mandated enforcer)
- Character
- statutory duty
- Collection
- Standing duties: Louisiana DUT-LA
Operative words
the rules and regulations of the Sanitary Code shall provide for an immunization program and provide for and require the reporting,... investigation, and application and implementation of appropriate control measures to expressly include isolation and quarantine proceedings and measures, for all communicable diseases of public health significance.
Penalty
Violations of the Sanitary Code are punished under R.S. 40:6 (Ex. DUT-LA-003): criminal fines and imprisonment (up to two years for isolation or quarantine violations), injunction on the district attorney's petition, civil fines up to $100 per day per violation and $10,000 per violator per year, and suspension or revocation of permits under R.S. 40:4(B)(3)
What it required
The state health officer must promulgate and enforce a Sanitary Code that requires isolation, quarantine and other control measures for every communicable disease of public health significance, must regulate 'public and private buildings... and similar buildings where people congregate' (A)(10), and holds express power 'to issue emergency rules and orders when necessary and for the purposes of controlling nuisances dangerous to the public health and communicable, contagious, and infectious diseases, and any other danger to the public life, health, and safety' (A)(13).
Retrieval noteOfficial Louisiana Legislature statute page rendered to PDF on Sept. 28, 2026 (current text; the (A)(2) and (A)(13) sentences quoted were in force in 2020-2021, the later amendments touching other paragraphs). sha256 from that run. Paragraph (A)(13) verbatim: 'The state health officer, through the office of public health, shall be expressly empowered and authorized to issue emergency rules and orders when necessary and for the purposes of controlling nuisances dangerous to the public health and communicable, contagious, and infectious diseases, and any other danger to the public life, health, and safety.' Every COVID-19 proclamation from 74 JBE 2020 forward recites that the Secretary of Health and the State Health Officer are 'expressly empowered to take any and all actions authorized thereto under Titles 29 and 40 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes and under the State Sanitary Code (LAC Title 51)' (Ex. LA-012 sec. 1(C); Exs. LA-023, LA-029, LA-036).