Nurse Kaci Hickox on Friday arrived in New Jersey after spending a month in Sierra Leone treating Ebola patients. Under a mandatory quarantine policy announced by Gov. Chris Christie the same day, Hickox was forced to stay in a tent outside a hospital with no working shower, even though she tested negative for the disease.
The mandatory quarantine was meant to last a full 21 days, which is the incubation period for Ebola, but after making a public appeal in the press over the weekend, Hickox was allowed to make the 600-mile trek from Newark to her home in Fort Kent, Maine today. Despite reversing the quarantine order, Christie defended his actions.
Before her release, Hickox threatened to file a federal civil rights lawsuit, and Northeastern University School of Law professor Wendy Parmet said she has a strong case.