U.S. District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema of the Eastern District of Virginia ruled in Wilkins v. Austin that the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) cannot ban HIV-positive people who are asymptomatic from joining the military, the Army Times reported.
Brinkema wrote in a decision filed on Aug. 20 that barring those with undetectable viral loads from serving is “irrational, arbitrary, and capricious,” as it contributes to a stigma about HIV-positive individuals while also actively hindering the military’s own recruitment goals.
“We are pleased the court has eliminated the last discriminatory policy that barred people living with HIV from seeking enlistment or appointment to the military. Americans living with HIV no longer face categorical barriers to service careers—discharge, bans on commissioning, bans on deployment and finally bans on enlisting,” Lambda Legal attorney Gregory Nevins said in a media release.
The Advocate had noted that in two other cases, Harrison v. Austin and Roe & Voe v. Austin, courts had ruled that the military policies preventing the commissioning and retention of these service members violated the U.S. Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). Until Brinkema’s decision, there had not been a ruling on if barring these people from joining the military also violated the Constitution and the APA.
Wilkins was filed on behalf of three individual plaintiffs who could not enlist or re-enlist based on their HIV status. The filing followed the Biden administration’s July 2022 announcement that it would no longer defend restrictions that prevented HIV-positive service members from deploying and commissioning as officers.
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