A US federal appeals court has ruled that people living with HIV can be barred from joining the military, overturning a lower court decision that had blocked the policy. The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reinstated the Department of Defense policy in a unanimous ruling issued Wednesday, February 18. The policy permits the rejection of HIV-positive applicants regardless of transmission risk. A US district court had previously halted the rule in August 2024. In its judgment, the three-judge panel said the military had a “rational basis” for maintaining its medical standards.
The judges wrote: “In this case, the military has articulated its need to have fit service members who can fulfill its military mission without complications from medical conditions that could compromise deployment functions, contribute to conflicts with foreign nations during deployment, and add costs over those generally necessary to maintain fit service members.” Medical experts note that modern anti-retroviral therapy, or ART, allows people with HIV to live long, healthy lives and nearly eliminates transmission risk.
Lambda Legal, which filed the lawsuit in 2022 on behalf of three plaintiffs, criticized the ruling. Senior counsel Gregory Nevins said he was deeply disappointed, adding that the decision upholds “discrimination over medical reality.”
