Attorneys from Lambda Legal urged a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Virginia, on Tuesday to affirm a ruling that struck down the military’s categorical ban on enlisting people living with HIV, calling the decades-old policy unconstitutional and medically baseless.
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The case, Wilkins v. Hegseth, challenges Department of Defense and Army rules that bar anyone with HIV from joining the armed forces, even individuals with undetectable viral loads who face no health limitations and pose no risk of transmission. In August 2024, a federal district court found those restrictions violated the Fifth Amendment’s equal protection guarantee and the Administrative Procedure Act, describing the policies as “irrational, arbitrary, and capricious” and noting they perpetuated stigma while undermining the Pentagon’s recruitment goals.
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The Department of Defense appealed that ruling, seeking to reinstate the ban. Tuesday’s arguments marked the first time the appeal was heard publicly.
On Tuesday, the same day oral arguments were held, the Fourth Circuit issued an order staying the enforcement of the district court’s injunction while it considers the appeal, temporarily reinstating the ban.
Lambda Legal attorneys Scott A. Schoettes and Linda Coberly defended the decision, emphasizing that the military has already been successfully processing enlistments of qualified individuals with HIV for more than a year under the district court’s injunction. That experience, they argued, undercuts the government’s claim that the ban is necessary for readiness or deployability.
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“Modern science has transformed HIV into a chronic, treatable condition,” Lambda Legal senior counsel Gregory Nevins said in a statement. He added that people with undetectable viral loads “can deploy anywhere, perform all duties without limitation, and pose no transmission risk to others.”
Schoettes, who led previous Lambda Legal cases protecting service members already in uniform, said the ruling simply requires the Defense Department to evaluate applicants with HIV based on the same medical standards it applies to everyone else. An affirmance, he said, would “definitively close any loopholes left by earlier rulings.”
Coberly, a partner at Winston & Strawn, called the enlistment ban a “holdover from a long era of needless discrimination,” saying it had long outlived any claimed justification.
The lawsuit was filed in 2022 on behalf of three individual plaintiffs — including former Army Reservist Isaiah Wilkins, who was disenrolled from the U.S. Military Academy Preparatory School after testing positive for HIV — and Minority Veterans of America, which represents civilians living with HIV who want to serve.
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Earlier court victories in Roe v. Austin and Harrison v. Austin forced the military to remove restrictions on deploying or commissioning service members with HIV. Advocates say ending the enlistment ban is the final step.
A decision from the Fourth Circuit is expected in the coming months.
