National Roundup

Virginia
Court argument seeks reversal of military HIV policies
FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — Lawyers for military service members whose careers were halted after testing positive for the AIDS virus asked a federal judge Monday to overturn policies restricting their service as irrational and discriminatory.

Lawsuits filed on behalf of two airmen and an Army National Guard sergeant say the military has no rational basis for holding the service members’ HIV status against them. The Air Force wants to discharge the two airmen from the service. The Army is refusing to grant an officer commission to the Army sergeant.

Rules regarding service of HIV-positive members are not consistent across the military. Generally, people HIV-positive cannot join the military. But those who test positive after enlisting face varying treatment.

The Air Force says it wants to discharge the two airmen — even though their commanding officers recommended retaining them — because their HIV status bars them from deploying worldwide, and it generally wants its airmen to be universally deployable. The plaintiffs say a similar rationale was used to deny an officer commission to Army Sgt. Nicholas Harrison, an Oklahoma native who is seeking to join the Judge Advocate General Corps after earning his law degree.

Lawyers for the government acknowledge that medical advances significantly reduce the risk of deploying HIV-positive service members. But they say the risks remain real, and urged the judge to grant deference to the military in handling the issue.

“Plaintiffs seek to substitute their own risk assessment for the professional military judgment of the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Military Services regarding medical qualifications for service,” government lawyers wrote in court papers.

In battlefield situations, government lawyer Rebecca Cutri-Kohart said military doctors believe there is a legitimate risk that HIV-positive service members might not regularly take the medication that keeps the virus in check. She said there are also concerns about battlefield blood transfusions.

Scott Schoettes, a lawyer for the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, which is representing the plaintiffs, said the risk of deploying HIV-positive service members is essentially nonexistent, so using HIV status to deny opportunities to serve makes no sense.

“The only thing holding these service members back is that they are living with HIV,” Schoettes said during Monday’s hearing in U.S. District Court in Alexandria.

In an interview after the hearing, Schoettes said airmen living with HIV faced increasing difficulties in the Air Force beginning under the Trump administration in 2017, when the service re-interpreted its rules to apply them more harshly to HIV-positive service members.

Judge Leonie Brinkema, who heard the case, already granted a temporary injunction last year barring the airmen’s discharge, and her injunction was upheld by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond. The injunction was based in part on her belief that the airmen’s lawsuit would be successful at this stage of the case.

In her ruling last year, which was focused on the airmen’s case, Brinkema acknowledged that the military is entitled a measure of deference but said “the Air Force’s approach to servicemembers living with HIV is irrational, inconsistent, and at variance with modem science.”

She said Monday that she’ll issue a ruling at a later date.

Schoettes said that, depending on how Brinkema crafts her ruling, it could apply not only to existing service members but also the bar on accepting new recruits who are HIV positive.

Oregon
NCAA seeks to dismiss college athletes’ federal lawsuit
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — The NCAA is seeking to dismiss a federal lawsuit by two college athletes that seeks to prevent the association from limiting compensation athletes can make from their names, images and likenesses.

Attorneys for the NCAA filed a motion to dismiss an antitrust lawsuit by Oregon women’s basketball player Sedona Prince and Arizona State swimmer Grant House that also seeks damages for potential past earnings athletes have been denied by current NCAA rules, The Oregonian reported Sunday.

Prince and House are also suing the Power Five conferences — the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and Southeastern Conference — for unspecified damages. Their suit seeks class-action status.

In their Friday filing in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, NCAA lawyers argue in part that college athletes “have no cognizable NIL rights in game broadcasts” and thus cannot seek damages based on a share of television revenues generated by the NCAA and the Power Five conferences.

Senior U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilkin of the Northern District of California is scheduled to hear the matter Nov. 18.

The NCAA is working to change rules to allow college athletes to earn money from third parties for social media endorsements, sponsorships and personal appearances. Several federal lawmakers, including Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, are working with the NCAA to craft a federal law on name, image and likeness compensation to supercede similar legislation at the state level.

California, Florida and Colorado already have approved compensation laws; Florida’s goes into effect next year, and California and Colorado in 2023. Dozens of other states have introduced at least one piece of NIL legislation.

Pennsylvania
Video: Officer being chased by man with knife shoots him
LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) — A police officer fatally shot a man during a domestic disturbance call, prompting street protests that led to vandalism in Pennsylvania.

Police posted the officer’s body camera video on social media, showing the man chasing the officer down a sidewalk with a knife before he was fatally shot, and eventually used tear gas early Monday to disperse the crowds.

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Lancaster following the shooting death of Ricardo Munoz, 27, on Sunday afternoon. The crowd formed outside the police station, where the department stated multiple buildings and government vehicles were damaged by demonstrators.

The  body camera video posted by police late Sunday showed the officer fire several shots while running away from Munoz, who then falls to the ground.

The officer was placed on administrative leave, according to local news outlets.

The Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office was leading the investigation. District Attorney Heather Adams acknowledged the protests in a news release late Sunday and called for calm.

“We ask that acts of protest remain peaceful as violence and destruction of property will become headlines and serve no purpose for the safety and wellbeing of our citizens and neighborhoods,” Adams stated.