Quarantine of Doctors returning from West Africa

Today, The Washington Post writer, Max Ehrenfreund, authored an article that quotes my colleagues, Lawrence Gostin and Mark Rothstein, both longtime public health law professors.  Max did not call me, or I would have given him a different perspective. (I have had interviews with The Wall Street Journal, FOX, Time Magazine, the Atlanta Journal Constitution,  over the past months since the Ebola epidemic began to emerge in the United States, but not The Washington Post.)
The article suggests that Governor Christie's action in quarantining people who have had contact with Ebola may be unconstitutional -- the word "may" is key to understanding the way quarantine law is applied.
As Mark Rothstein noted, the court will decide if the risk to the public is high enough to burden the freedom of the individuals detained because of their contact with Ebola patients. In addition, this detention must be the least burdensome means possible.  That is the test the court will apply.
My recommendation to Governor Christie is that returning individuals be detained long enough to give them a more in depth interview about their exposure which would reveal more about the risk of that individual contracting Ebola, because we know certain exposures make it more likely that an individual will become sick, i.e., handling the bodies of people who have died of Ebola when the viral load is at its highest.  After this interview process, instructions will be given to them to log into a website and self-report their temperature each day. This requires little in the way of additional staff for the public health agency and when the computer program would notify the agency when the temperature is rising, or when the individual fails to report.  The first time there is a failure to report, the individual would be detained in quarantine for the duration of the 21-day period. 
This is the least burdensome method of protecting the public health, and that is the question the court will ask about this quarantine order.