Nurse free to move about as restrictions eased

FORT KENT, Maine (AP) - A nurse in who treated Ebola patients in Sierra Leone can move about as she pleases after a judge eased state-imposed restrictions on her, handing officials in Maine a defeat in the nation's biggest court case yet over how to balance personal liberty, public safety and fear of Ebola.

Judge Charles C. LaVerdiere ruled Friday that Kaci Hickox must continue daily monitoring of her health but said there is no need to isolate her or restrict her movements because she has no symptoms and is therefore not contagious.

The judge also decried the "misconceptions, misinformation, bad science and bad information" circulating about the lethal disease in the U.S.

After the ruling, a state police cruiser that had been posted outside Hickox's home left, and she and her boyfriend stepped outside to thank the judge.

Hickox, 33, called it "a good day" and said her "thoughts, prayers and gratitude" remain with those who are still battling Ebola in West Africa.

She said she had no immediate plans other than to watch a scary movie at home on Halloween in this town of 4,300 people on the remote northern edge of Maine, near the Canadian border.

Maine health officials had gone to court on Thursday in an attempt to bar her from crowded public places and require her to stay at least 3 feet from others until the 21-day incubation period for Ebola was up on Nov. 10. She would have been free to jog or go bike riding.

But the judge turned the state down.

Gov. Paul LePage said he disagreed with the ruling but will abide by it. Officials said there are no plans to appeal.

"As governor, I have done everything I can to protect the health and safety of Mainers. The judge has eased restrictions with this ruling, and I believe it is unfortunate," LePage said.

Later in the day, the governor lashed out at Hickox, saying: "She has violated every promise she has made so far, so I can't trust her. I don't trust her. And I don't trust that we know enough about this disease to be so callous."

Hickox was thrust into the center of a national debate after she returned to the U.S. last week from treating Ebola victims in West Africa as a volunteer for Doctors Without Borders.

She contended that the state's confining her to her home in what it called a voluntary quarantine violated her rights and was unsupported by science. She defied the restrictions twice, once to go on a bike ride and once to talk to the media and shake a reporter's hand.

In his ruling, the judge thanked Hickox for her service in Africa and acknowledged the gravity of restricting someone's constitutional rights without solid science to back it up.