U.S. Military's Ban on Enlistment by PLHIV is Reinstated
In an opinion issued on Wednesday, February 18, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit restored a policy barring people living with HIV from enlisting in the U.S. military, the nation’s largest employer. The ruling emphasizes judicial deference to military judgment in determining that the armed forces may lawfully rely on medical standards that automatically disqualify people living with HIV, including those in treatment.
The decision reverses an earlier lower court ruling that had invalidated the ban, finding that Department of Defense and Army enlistment rules violated the Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act by excluding all prospective service members with HIV. Following that ruling in August 2024, the military admitted qualified recruits with well-managed HIV, demonstrating their ability to serve successfully. This new opinion dismisses that experience and reestablishes a policy rooted in outdated assumptions rather than current medical evidence.
The Court distinguished the facts in Wilkins from the earlier decision in Roe v. Department of Defense, which struck down a ban on deployment of active duty service members living with HIV. Thus, the decision in Roe remains in effect.
Last July, CHLP joined ACLU, NASTAD, SERO Project, Whitman-Walker, and Community Resource Initiative in filing an amicus brief in support of the plaintiff. Written by Kara N. Ingelhart of the LGBTQI+ Rights Clinic, Bluhm Legal Clinic, at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, the brief argued that the military’s continued ban on enlistment for people living with HIV is scientifically unfounded, discriminatory, and inconsistent with the DoD’s public health mission.
Wilkins v. Hegseth (formerly Wilkins v. Austin) was brought by Lambda Legal, challenging the U.S. military’s policy of banning people living with HIV from enlisting in the U.S. Armed Forces. The now-reinstated policy reinforces stigma and undermines national efforts to improve HIV outcomes and end the epidemic.
