New Jersey Chris Christie is being sued by the nurse who grabbed the national spotlight last year by publicly defying detainment after returning to the U.S. from Ebola-ravaged Sierra Leone where she was treating victims with the disease.
Kaci Hickox is accusing Christie and other New Jersey health officials for “unlawfully and unreasonably” detaining her after her plane landed at Newark International Airport in October of 2014. She was later moved to University Hospital in Newark, where she was held in an isolation tent and monitored for several days. Health officials said Hickox was displaying symptoms of Ebola, a claim Hickox denies.
The text of the lawsuit alleges Hickox was deprived of due process and was unlawfully quarantining her pursuant to a mandatory quarantine protocol in New Jersey for any healthcare workers who treated patients with Ebola in the West African nations of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
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“I never had Ebola. I never had symptoms of Ebola. I tested negative for Ebola the first night I stayed in New Jersey governor Chris Christie’s private prison,” Hickox said in a press release from the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, which teamed up with Hickox to file the lawsuit on Thursday.
“My liberty, my interests and consequently my civil rights were ignored because some ambitious governors saw an opportunity to use an age-old political tactic: fear,” Hickox said.
When she was released from the New Jersey hospital, Hickox returned to her home in Maine where she defied an order by state authorities to stay isolated for 21 days, the extent of the incubation phase of the Ebola virus.
After the controversial quarantine ended, Christie spoke with reporters on the Hickox’s detainment.
One reporter suggested Christie may have to defend his actions in court, to which the governor replied, “Well whatever, get in line. I’ve been sued lots of times before. Get in line. I’m happy to take it on.” He defended his decision to put Hickox in an isolation tent because she was suspected of having Ebola and that officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were at the hospital to monitor Hickox’s health conditions.
In an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes Friday night, Hickox said that quarantining her was based on “no medical, scientific, public health or legal grounds.”
The goal of the lawsuit, Hickox said, “its not about me — it’s about the fact that some of these quarantine policies are still in place in states in the U.S., and we have to hold politicians accountable for these decisions. You cannot forcibly incarcerate someone if it’s not based on legal grounds.”
It’s been a bit of a rough week for Christie. On Thursday, the New Jersey state Senate voted down his veto of a gun control bill, marking the first time lawmakers in either state legislative body have successfully defied a veto by Christie since he became governor in 2010. The state General Assembly will also need to successfully vote against the veto for the bill to become law.
Christie is also running a campaign to be the Republican presidential nominee. He currently sits in ninth place at 2.4 percent in a RealClearPolititcs average of polls nationwide and is ninth in the Washington Examiner‘s presidential power rankings.
