Arizona woman’s lawsuit against New York coronavirus travel advisory dismissed in federal court

ALBANY, N.Y. (WROC) — A lawsuit filed by an Arizona woman against New York state’s coronavirus travel advisory has been dismissed by a federal court.

Plaintiff Cynthia Page filed the lawsuit on July 1, one week after Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive order which required incoming travelers from areas with high virus infection rates to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival, with civil penalties for those who violate ranging from $2,000 to $10,000.

According to court documents, Page had planned to fly to Brooklyn for a couple of weeks to help her friends pack up belongings left in a house they were preparing to sell. Page says she had to cancel her plans because Arizona is on the list of restrictive states.

According to the lawsuit, Page had not yet been exposed to COVID-19 or anyone with symptoms and that the cancellation of her trip “was and continues to be very upsetting.”

According to court paperwork, Page was “excited to go to New York,” and believed this was her “last chance to see the sights of New York City with [her friends].”

The defendants—including Gov. Cuomo, New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker, and New York State Attorney General Letitia James, among others—motioned to dismiss Page’s complaint.

In a ruling filed Tuesday, a federal court did dismiss the lawsuit, saying in part:

“Jacobson was decided just after the turn of the last century, at a time when medical science was in its adolescence if not still in its infancy. Because it endorses an approach to constitutional analysis that has fallen out of fashion, it is admittedly strange—and even a little alarming—to discover that Jacobson is still considered the right tool for evaluating state action taken to protect public health. Yet unless and until the Supreme Court revisits Jacobson and fashions a test that demands a more particularized showing from public health officials in light of the unbelievable medical achievements of the twenty-first century, it remains a complete roadblock to Page’s claims.”

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