Recruits With Negligible HIV Loads May Be Admitted Into Military

HIV-positive recruits with undetectable viral loads can’t be prevented from joining the military, a federal court said.

The military’s categorical accessions bar is arbitrary and capricious and violates due process, Judge Leonie M. Brinkema said Tuesday for the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Harrison v. Austinand Roe v. Austin held that the military’s policies prohibiting the commissioning and retention of asymptomatic HIV-positive service members with undetectable viral loads were irrational, arbitrary, and capricious, in violation of the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause and the Administrative Procedure Act, Brinkema said. This case addressed whether the application ...