The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- Tennessee
- Level
- State
- Authority
- Police power of the State; Tenn. Code Ann. title 68, ch. 1, pt. 2; subsection (c) added by 2021 Tenn. Pub. Acts ch. 550, sec. 5 (Ex. TN-065)
- Issued
- 2021-05-26 May 26, 2021
- Effective
- standing (read as 2021-05-26)
- End
- standing (read as 2021-09-30)
- In force
- Standing since May 26, 2021 (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
- Business closureQuarantine and isolationStanding duty
- Addressees
- persons generally; owners or persons in control of premises on which a case, cause or source of disease may be found (through the definition of quarantine); the Commissioner of Health (power and duty)
- Character
- statutory authority
- Collection
- Standing duties: Tennessee DUT-TN
Operative words
(a) The commissioner has the power to: (1) Declare quarantine whenever, in the commissioner's judgment, the welfare of the public requires it; and (2) Prescribe such rules and regulations as may be deemed proper for the prevention of the introduction of yellow fever, cholera and other epidemic diseases into the state.
Penalty
Willful escape from isolation or quarantine is a Class B misdemeanor (sec. 68-5-104(b), Ex. DUT-TN-002); obstruction of a health officer's entry into premises is prohibited (Rule 1200-14-01-.26, Ex. DUT-TN-005)
What it required
Vested the Commissioner of Health with standing power to declare quarantine and to make disease-control rules, and commanded that when an epidemic disease appears the commissioner 'shall prepare and carry into effect such rules and regulations as, in the commissioner's judgment, will, with the least inconvenience to commerce and travel, prevent the spread of the disease' (subsection (b)(1)); 'quarantine' includes 'preventing or restricting access to premises upon which the person or the cause or source of a disease may be found' (subsection (c)). Character as recorded: statutory_authority (enabling power; binds through the orders issued under it).
Retrieval noteText read in the saved exhibit (LawServer mirror of the Tennessee Code, 'current as of 2024'). Justia, FindLaw and Casetext refused fetching and hold no archived captures; the official LexisNexis site is script-rendered and not fetchable. Subsections (a) and (b) predate the pandemic; subsection (c) (the definition of quarantine) was added by Pub. Ch. 550, sec. 5, effective May 26, 2021 (Ex. TN-065), and is recorded as such. Subsection (b)(1)'s phrase 'with the least inconvenience to commerce and travel' is the Tennessee legislature's own recognition that disease-control rules limit commerce and travel.