Kaci Hickox and her boyfriend Ted Wilbur come out of their house to speak to reporters, Friday, Oct. 31, 2014, in Fort Kent, Maine. Hickox, a nurse who defied an Ebola quarantine in the state of Maine after treating patients in West Africa, can travel unrestricted after a judge rejected the state's bid to limit her movements. Judge Charles C. LaVerdiere said Friday that Hickox must continue daily monitoring and coordinate travel with state officials so monitoring can continue. But the judge said there's no need for further restrictions because she's not infectious.

FORT KENT, Maine — A nurse 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 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.

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 the state's confining her to her home in what it called a voluntary quarantine violated her rights. She defied the restrictions twice, once to go on a bike ride and once to talk to the media.

Nurse Kaci Hickox speaks to reporters outside her home, Friday in Maine. A judge gave Hickox the OK to go wherever she pleases.