42 U.S.C. § 264 — Regulations to control communicable diseases

(a) Making and enforcing the rules. The Surgeon General, with the Secretary's approval, may make and enforce regulations needed, in the Surgeon General's judgment, to stop communicable diseases from being brought in, spread, or transmitted from foreign countries into the states or U.S. possessions, or from one state or possession into another. To carry out and enforce those regulations, the Surgeon General may require inspection, fumigation, disinfection, sanitation, pest extermination, destroying infected or contaminated animals or articles that are dangerous sources of infection to people, and any other measures judged necessary. (b) Limits on detaining people. These regulations cannot allow apprehending, detaining, or conditionally releasing individuals except to prevent the spread of communicable diseases that the President, on the Secretary's recommendation and in consultation with the Surgeon General, has specifically named in an Executive order from time to time. (c) Who the detention rules apply to. Except as described in (d), any regulation allowing apprehension, detention, examination, or conditional release of individuals applies only to people entering a state or possession from a foreign country or possession. (d) Detaining people who might spread disease between states. Regulations may allow apprehending and examining anyone reasonably believed to be infected, in a "qualifying stage," with a communicable disease, if that person is moving or about to move from one state to another, or is a likely source of infection to other infected people who will be moving between states. If examination confirms the infection, the regulations may allow detaining that person for as long as is reasonably necessary. For this part, "State" also includes the District of Columbia. A disease is in a "qualifying stage" if it is currently in a communicable stage, or if it's in a pre-communicable stage that would likely cause a public health emergency if it spread to other people. (e) State laws still apply. Nothing in this section, or in section 266, or in the regulations under either one, overrides any state law — including state regulations and local government rules — unless that state or local rule actually conflicts with the federal government's use of its authority under this section or section 266.