UCMJ Article 84: Breach of Medical Quarantine
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Breach of medical quarantine is knowingly going beyond the limits of a medical quarantine ordered by someone with authority, before being released. The maximum is a dishonorable discharge and 1 year when the quarantine concerns a quarantinable communicable disease listed in 42 C.F.R. § 70.1, and a bad-conduct discharge, 6 months, and forfeiture of two-thirds pay for 6 months in other cases. Being placed “on quarters” for illness is not, by itself, a medical quarantine.
Breaking an ordered medical quarantine
Under 10 U.S.C. § 884, the offense is committed by a person subject to the UCMJ “who is ordered into medical quarantine by a person authorized to issue such order” and who, “with knowledge of the quarantine and the limits of the quarantine, goes beyond those limits before being released from the quarantine by proper authority.”
The Manual for Courts-Martial (2024 ed.), Part IV, ¶ 8.b, lists four elements:
- A certain person ordered the accused into medical quarantine.
- That person was authorized to do so.
- The accused knew of the quarantine and its limits.
- The accused went beyond those limits before being released by proper authority.
If the quarantine was imposed in response to a “quarantinable communicable disease” as defined in 42 C.F.R. § 70.1, that becomes a fifth element and raises the maximum.
The article was added by the Military Justice Act of 2016 (Pub. L. 114-328, § 5405). Before January 1, 2019, “Article 84” was unlawful enlistment, appointment, or separation, now Article 104b.
Quarantine versus quarters
“Putting a person ‘on quarters’ or other otherwise excusing a person from duty because of illness does not of itself constitute a medical quarantine” (¶ 8.c(1)). For example, a service member sent to quarters with a cold who leaves the barracks has not, on that fact alone, breached a medical quarantine under this article. The order must actually impose a quarantine, with limits, from someone authorized to impose it.
Knowledge and authority
The accused must have known both that the quarantine applied and where its limits were. An order the accused never received, or limits that were never communicated, defeat the knowledge element. Equally, a quarantine imposed by someone without authority to order it does not satisfy the second element.
1 year when the disease is on the federal list
From ¶ 8.d:
| Quarantine | Maximum |
|---|---|
| Imposed for a quarantinable communicable disease defined in 42 C.F.R. § 70.1 | Dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, 1 year |
| All other cases | Bad-conduct discharge, forfeiture of two-thirds pay per month for 6 months, 6 months |
Whether the higher tier applies depends on the disease being one listed in the federal regulation, which the government must plead and prove.
Restriction, orders, and other limits
Leaving a restriction imposed for reasons other than quarantine is breach of restriction under Article 87b. Disobeying a commander’s quarantine order can also be charged as a failure to obey an order under Article 92, but the note to ¶ 18.d provides that when a violation of an order is a breach of restraint imposed as a result of an order, the maximum is the one prescribed for that specific offense.
Sources
- 10 U.S.C. § 884, Article 84, Breach of medical quarantine (Cornell LII)
- Manual for Courts-Martial, United States (2024 ed.), Part IV, ¶ 8 and ¶ 18.d
General information about military law, not legal advice for any individual case.