The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- New Jersey
- Level
- State
- Authority
- Legislative enactment; codified at N.J.S.A. 26:13-1 to -31 (Emergency Health Powers Act)
- Issued
- 2005-09-14 Sept. 14, 2005
- Effective
- 2005-09-14 (s. 36: 'This act shall take effect immediately'); powers exercisable during a declared public health emergency (declared Mar. 9, 2020, EO 103, Ex. NJ-001; terminated June 4, 2021, EO 244, Ex. NJ-052) (read as 2005-09-14)
- End
- standing (read as 2021-09-30)
- In force
- Standing since Sept. 14, 2005 (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
- owners or persons in control of premises (any 'facility'); persons generally (isolation and quarantine); health care facilities (hearing right, 26:13-8(a)(2))
- Character
- statutory authority
- Collection
- Standing duties: New Jersey DUT-NJ
Operative words
8. During a state of public health emergency, the commissioner may exercise the following powers over facilities or property: a. Facilities. To close, direct and compel the evacuation of, or to decontaminate or cause to be decontaminated, any facility of which there is reasonable cause to believe that it may endanger the public health.
Penalty
Closure by written order (26:13-8(a)(1)); court-enforced isolation and quarantine (26:13-15); violation of the Governor's orders under the declared emergency is a disorderly-persons offense under N.J.S.A. App. A:9-49 (Ex. DUT-NJ-006); the 2005 act carries no free-standing fine section
What it required
During the declared public health emergency the Commissioner of Health could close, evacuate or decontaminate any facility reasonably believed to endanger the public health, take 'all reasonable and necessary measures to prevent the transmission of infectious disease' (26:13-12), and order isolation and quarantine that the subject 'shall obey' (26:13-15(d)(1)), and the declaring order could 'prescribe necessary actions or countermeasures to protect the public's health' (26:13-3(a)). Character as recorded: statutory_authority (enabling power; binds through the orders issued under it).
Retrieval noteOfficial enacted chapter law from the Legislature's publication server (89 KB). Section 19 as enacted immunizes public entities; the health-care immunity of 2020 is P.L. 2020, c. 18 (Ex. DUT-NJ-007). EO 103 (Ex. NJ-001) and every later order recite 'N.J.S.A. 26:13-1 et seq.' as authority; EO 192 para. 13 recites 26:13-8 closure as the sanction for non-adherence to worksite protocols (Ex. NJ-036).