The order resets a high-stakes legal fight over whether people living with HIV can be categorically excluded from military service under a policy critics say ignores modern science.
A federal appeals court has revived a major challenge to the U.S. military’s HIV enlistment ban, reopening a closely watched case that could determine whether people living with HIV can continue to be categorically barred from serving.
In an order issued May 18, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit agreed to rehear Wilkins v. Hegseth, vacating a February ruling by a three-judge panel that upheld the Pentagon’s restrictions on recruits living with HIV. The rare move resets the case and gives advocates another opportunity to dismantle one of the military’s last remaining HIV-specific exclusions.
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