The US Department of Justice [official website] (DOJ) filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF] on Tuesday against New York City [official website] for revoking the offer of an emergency dispatch position because the applicant was HIV positive. The DOJ claims [Reuters report] the denial of the position is discriminatory based on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) [text], which they claim includes being HIV positive. The applicant, Raymond Parker, applied in July 2013. He received a conditional employment offer but later was disqualified after completing his medical exams. The DOJ is seeking a declaration barring the city from repeating the offense and compensation for Parker.

Combating HIV has been an international concern for years. Last June a group of UN independent human rights experts said that human rights violations contribute to the spread of HIV/AIDS [JURIST report]. In May California’s governor signed Senate Bill 1408 into law, allowing HIV-positive individuals to become transplant donors to HIV-positive recipients [JURIST report]. In 2015 President Barack Obama issued executive order 13703 [JURIST documents] “Implementing the National HIV/AIDS Strategy,” which was intended to ensure successful implementation of the the updated national AIDS/HIV strategy. In 2013 the Alabama Department of Corrections [official website] announced an end to its policy of segregating HIV-positive inmates at Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women [JURIST report]. In 2010 Human Rights Watch urged the South Carolina Department of Corrections to stop automatically segregating HIV-positive inmates [JURIST report].