A cop car and a group of journalists are apparently tailing Kaci Hickox, a nurse who worked with Ebola patients in West Africa but has not shown symptoms of the virus, as she continues to do things other than quarantine herself.

Hickox, who flew from West Africa to Newark Airport this weekend, was forced into quarantine at a local hospital under New Jersey's new quarantine rules. Jersey governor Chris Christie, who initially told her to get in line and sue him, eventually released her when she threatened legal action.

She then returned home to Maine, where officials are now officially panicking.

The state, which had initially announced plans to request a court order that would keep her at home in quarantine, apparently hammered out conditions with the C.D.C. that would require she stay three feet away from people in public.

It's not all that different from what Hickox has already been doing—despite showing no symptoms and testing negative for the virus twice, she's mostly stayed indoors. She left her porch once yesterday to talk with reporters. The only apparent contact she made was shaking a journalist's hand when he offered it. Not that it matters. According to the Times, the negotiations over the C.D.C. recommendations "stalemated," and then Hickox staged her protest bike ride.

Her lawyer tells CNN the legal team put a lot of thought into the casual outing.

"You can take a bike ride, be in the public and not actually interact with people," Norm Siegel told the network. "We thought this was a good way to exercise her right. We didn't want anyone in the town to be scared, even though the fear is based in misinformation."

The gesture also seems to be forcing a court battle with the state, which Hickox's lawyers say they plan to argue is unconstitutional. The decision would be the first to determine a state's Ebola quarantine guidelines.

[image via AP]