Overview
- The unanimous three-judge panel reversed an August 2024 district-court ruling that had struck down the enlistment ban and briefly allowed qualified HIV-positive recruits to join.
- The court held that the Defense Department may exclude applicants with HIV, including those with undetectable viral loads, under a deferential rational-basis review of military readiness decisions.
- Pentagon justifications the court accepted included the need for uninterrupted medication, regular lab monitoring, exclusion from combat “walking blood bank” systems, projected medical costs, and potential foreign-posting complications.
- Advocacy groups, including Lambda Legal, condemned the decision as ignoring medical consensus that virally suppressed individuals do not transmit HIV and can perform all duties.
- Plaintiffs in Wilkins v. Hegseth can seek rehearing by the full Fourth Circuit or petition the U.S. Supreme Court, leaving further litigation likely.