Legal Imperative: Protection of Both Community and Individual Rights

• NCJ Number: 121378
• Author(s): T P O'Brien
• Date Published: 1987
• Length: 11 pages
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Presentation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Speech given at the American Bar Association annual meeting in San Francisco on August 10, 1987.

Annotation

When public officials exercise their legal authorities to intervene on behalf of community health, they must accord citizens procedural due process.

Abstract

A combination of characteristics of HIV influence legal analysis, degree of legal scrutiny, elements of proof, and remedial action. These are the mode of transmission, the fact that there is no cure and most carriers are asymptomatic, the 100 percent mortality rate, and the social or moral stigma attached to HIV. The stigma associated with HIV alone will not authorize the government to assert public health measures to punish socially disapproved of groups or classes merely because persons fall with the groups. In Minnesota, there is a need for statutory guidance to clarify the authority, discretionary judgments, and the legal process by which public health authorities may intervene against a citizen alleged to constitute a health threat to others. Currently, public health officials may confine a noncompliant carrier for a limited period of time, but only if they also accord full procedural due process rights and do not diminish individual constitutional protections.